Uric the Oddball and the Wild Hunt
by Ariana Deralte
Summary: Ever wonder what Hogwarts was like before Dumbledore? Before Dippet? It's 1680 and Uric the Oddball Beaufolle is starting at Hogwarts. New teachers. New students. New problems. Just how much trouble can an eleven year old get into? Plenty. Complete
1. Coaches and Confrontations

A/N: This story is not formatted in the same way as Uric the Oddball's Fantastic Adventures. It should read more like one of the books and Uric's thoughts are not in italics. It is however, an AU from Uric the Oddball's Fantastic Adventures.

Chapter 1: Uric is eleven and just getting on the coaches for Hogwarts. On the coaches he makes some friends…and enemies.

Disclaimer: Uric the Oddball is not mine, nor is Hogwarts and all attendant ideas. They belong to Rowling. However, I created nearly every professor and student in this story and anyone may do with them as he/she likes.

Go on. Read the first chapter. I dare you:)

*****

Chapter 1: The Coaches

            Uric Beaufolle stood with his parents on the stagecoach platform. Today would be his first day at Hogwart's School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. If the stagecoaches ever got there that is. He wondered if they had stopped for tea somewhere. 

            Uric was tall for his eleven years. His fine brown hair was pulled back into the braid that was popular among wizarding boys these days. Large, hazel eyes stared out over the rapidly growing crowd of young wizards and their families. Uric risked a quick glance up at his parents, standing on either side of him.

            His father's dark brown beard hid most of his face, but Uric knew he was staring out at the crowd with distaste. The crowd was disorganized and loud. Two things Uric's father hated.

            His mother had lighter hair that matched Uric's. Her green eyes were unreadable as they scanned the crowd, and Uric knew she was worried by the way she crushed his hand.

            For his part, Uric was secretly elated to be going to school. He loved seeing new things and Hogwarts seemed the perfect place to indulge himself. Maybe he could even test out his theory about flying dust rags replacing brooms. You used both of them to clean after all…

            "Uric!" His father was shaking his shoulder.

            "Yes Father?"

            "None of this crazy stuff you hear? Don't embarrass me at school. Make sure you do your homework. Your mother will see you off. I have to get back to the Council." He swept Uric up in a hug then walked quickly away, absentmindedly accepting the greetings of his fellow wizards. Uric watched him with pride. Father was a respected Council member and everyone knew him.

            His mother began fussing with his robes and hair, and he squirmed under her attention. She bent down so she could meet his eyes.

            "Listen to me Uric. I know you don't understand what 'crazy things' are, or even know what you're doing when you say such odd things, but you must watch yourself at Hogwarts. While you are there you are representing the Beaufolle family and our honor must be upheld. Do well, stay out of trouble and don't forget to make some friends." She kissed him and he made a face.

            "Mum?"

            "Yes Uric?"

            "Don't you think it would be easier if we all grew grass instead of hair? Then all we'd have to do is remember to water ourselves every once and awhile." She sighed and kissed him once again on the head.

            "Be good Uric…" He never found out what she was going to say because the Hogwart's coaches arrived.

            Seven huge, dark purple coaches rolled into view. They were each drawn by four giant hogs. Their bristles dripped sweat and several of the girls screamed when they snorted fire. Uric began dragging his trunk closer, joining the crowd around the entrance to the coach nearest him. The door of the carriage was decorated with the Hogwarts coat of arms on a shield of light purple.

            The door opened and the crowd shifted back. A short woman with curly blond hair stepped out onto the step. She was dressed in the black Hogwart's robes with a chimera embroidered over her heart. She smiled out over the crowd. Everyone stopped talking and waited for her to speak. When she did, her mellifluous voice was strong enough to cut through the noise around the other coaches. Their students, Uric noted, were already being loaded, with a few stragglers wandering over to join the crowd around the blond haired lady.

            "My name is Professor Baker and this is the first-year coach. You may give your trunks to the driver, who will place them up on top." She gestured to the roof, which was lined with rails. 

            "Students are advised to keep with them only the essentials they need for the journey. Snacks will be available. We ask parents not to enter the coaches, so say your goodbyes out here." Someone up front asked a question Uric couldn't hear. Professor Baker smiled down at the questioner as she answered.

            "Don't worry. I'll be chaperoning them the whole way," she said. Uric noticed his mother had gotten a hold of his hand again and was squeezing it even tighter than before.

            "Mum, my hand says it needs blood to live," he pointed out. She looked down at him and let go of his hand.

            "Sorry sweetheart. You'll write me if there's any trouble right?"

            "Of course mum," he said, then gave her a quick kiss. She was beginning to make him nervous and Uric didn't want to be nervous. He eagerly dragged his trunk over to the driver, his mother trailing behind him. They waited as the driver loaded everyone's different trunks.

            The driver was a huge, hulking man with a bushy black beard and a large pear shaped nose. He just grunted when Uric said thank you.

            Clutching the cage for his pet tightly, Uric walked over to the door of the coach. Most of the other first years were already inside. Professor Baker was leaning against the door, playing some type of game with a string. His mother decided to introduce him.

            "Professor Baker? I'm Lydia Beaufolle. This is my son, Uric," she said. The professor looked him over with disinterested eyes. He had the feeling she'd been introduced to a lot of students today. She stuck out a hand still covered with string.

            "Nice to meet you Uric." She smiled at him encouragingly and motioned with her eyes for him to get in the coach. "Don't worry Mrs. Beaufolle. He'll be fine." This didn't seem to assure his mother much.

            "I love you Uric," she called right before he stepped through. Professor Baker was gently steering her away from the coach. He turned on the step and waved, then entered the coach.

*****

            The coach was, like many magical conveyances, much larger on the inside than on the outside. Four rows of ten red velvet lined seats, split down the middle by an aisle, took up most of the space. Great velvet curtains framed the enlarged windows.

            It was loud in the compartment, as nearly forty students tried to find their seats. Uric stood in the doorway, which opened between two of the rows, and tried to decide where to sit. He felt something poke his backside.

            "Move your arse," said an annoyed voice behind him. He turned around. There stood a short girl with her hands on her hips. She was glaring at him. She absentmindedly pushed a strand of her stringy, blond hair out of her face revealing a large smudge on her cheek.

            "Hello," he said, belatedly remembering to bow like he had been taught.

            "I asked you to move, not bow." She pushed him into one of the seats in an effort to get past him.

            "Ooof!" he exclaimed. The girl just walked away. Uric quickly forgot about her as he checked to see if the cage in his hand was all right. The heavy wool cover had slipped, revealing the cage's golden bars and its astonished occupant.

            Uric's uncle, Melphicles, was well known for his experimental breeding. He had a habit of foisting his finished experiments off on his relatives. This year, Uric had received one of the stranger experiments as a gift for his eleventh birthday. It resembled a green lizard, about twenty centimeters long. Out of its back sprouted a set of light blue feathery wings. Feathers also sprouted randomly at other places on its body, especially on its head.

            It stuck its head out the bars and chirruped at him. Uric smiled broadly and pet its head with his finger.

            "Hello, Simon. Enjoying your trip? It's very red in here, isn't it?" Simon chirped at him, in what Uric took as agreement. He could feel the coach lurch into motion and held the cage even tighter than before.

            "What's that?" said a dark-haired boy, peering into the cage. Uric was shocked to discover that kids surrounded him and Simon.

            "Yeah. What is it?" asked the girl who had pushed him. Two other girls were making cooing noises at Simon.

            "She's adorable," said one of them.

            "It looks like some sort of bird-lizard," commented the other.

            "He is a bird-lizard, but don't tell him. He thinks he's just a bird."

            "And just how are we supposed to tell him?" came the voice of a tall boy in the back. "None of us are exactly skilled at speaking to bird-lizards are we?" A few of the kids laughed. The tall boy smiled a mocking smile and began to speak in a lecturing tone.

            "Interspecies breeding is frowned upon by the Wizard's Council due to the large death rate involved for the creatures and their handlers. I imagine that bird-lizard has some sort of flaw as well. It'll probably die of organ failure before Hallowe'en, leaving you without a pet." Uric glared at the boy.

            "He won't die! I've had Simon for months now!" he protested. It was very mean to say something like that, especially in front of Simon. One of the boys reached into the cage to try to pet Simon, causing him to flap his wings and leap about the cage. Uric was forced to break off his glare to try to soothe him.

            "It's a proven fact that half-breeds don't last long," said the tall boy, trying to continue the argument. When Uric didn't respond, he decided to try a different tact. "My name is Varys Nachleen. We know your creature's name is Simon. What's yours?" All the others had gone silent.

            "Uric Beaufolle," said Uric, remembering his mother's admonition about making friends, though he really didn't think he could be friends with someone who didn't like Simon. Varys surprised him by holding out his hand.

            "Our father's work together on the Council. It's strange how we've never met. You would think, two council members with children the same age…" Uric didn't know what he was getting at. He decided to change the subject.

            "Have you ever wondered what it would be like if spoons ruled the Earth? I don't think we'd ever be allowed to eat soup again." They were all staring at him. He self-consciously patted down his hair. Maybe his braid had come undone. Suddenly, Varys began to laugh.

            "You're completely bonkers. No wonder your father's been hiding you away," he said, still laughing. Uric frowned at him. Was Varys insulting his father?

            "He's not insane!" spoke up the dirty blond-haired girl. "They don't give Hogwart's letters to insane people." Varys looked her over.

            "You're Muggle-born aren't you?" he asked. The girl nodded unwillingly. "Then you wouldn't know that getting a Hogwart's letter only means you have magical talent. Nothing more."

            "Personally, I think we all have to be a tad bit insane to play with magic like we do," came the lilting voice of Professor Baker. "Would you all leave Uric's poor bird alone and take a seat? Sometimes the hogs get feisty and you don't want to be visiting Madame Reinhart on your first day in." The students quickly went back to their chosen seats. Uric was surprised to see the blonde-haired girl slump down beside him. She stared down at her feet until everyone left, than turned to him.

            "You just had to say that didn't you? Spoons?!"

            "Say what?" he asked. She looked at him sharply. Uric really had no idea what she was talking about. 

             "Never mind. Can I see Simon?" she asked, staring curiously at the bird-lizard. Uric nodded and handed her the cage.

            "I'd take him out, but he's not used to this place and he might get scared." Simon was letting her pet his head.

            "It's okay. My name is Mena by the way. My father is guild master to the blacksmith's of London. Is the Wizard's Council like a guild?"

            "I don't know what a guild is, but the Wizard's Council is in charge of the Wizarding World. It makes the laws and sets the standards that everyone must follow," he said. His father had explained this many times over the dinner table.

            "And your father's on it?"

            "Yes," said Uric proudly, "there's been a Beaufolle on the Council since 1128."

            "Yeah, well there's been a Smith in England since before the beginning of time," she said in an annoyed tone. And with that, she turned away from him and began reading one of their textbooks. Uric looked at her for a moment, than shrugged. He went back to contemplating his 'silverware ruling the earth' theory.

*****

Chapter 2: The Sorting and we get our first look at Hogwarts in the 1600's. It'll be up tomorrow probably.

Did you hate it? Love it? Think it was totally stupid? Review and tell me:) 


	2. The Sorting Hat

Chapter 2: The Sorting Hat

            Loud grunts and squeals signified their arrival at Hogwarts. Uric wolfed down his last chocolate frog (obtained from the snack bar in the back of the coach) and grabbed Simon's cage. He was one of the first out the door, since he was sitting so close. 

            The other coaches were nowhere to be seen. Their coach was stopped right beside a large lake. Tiny boats bobbed at its edge, tended to by a muscular woman. Her redish- grey hair was pulled back in a bushy braid that hung nearly to her ankles. Professor Baker was talking to her. 

            "Where's the other coaches?" a kid behind Uric asked loudly. Professor Baker looked over from her conversation with the braid woman. 

            "It is tradition for first years to travel to Hogwarts by the lake. This is Dasha." She indicated the woman beside her. "She will be taking you across." And with that, she walked determinedly towards the coach, ignoring all other questions. She pulled herself up beside the driver and motioned impatiently for the coach to depart. With a few snorts of flame they were off, leaving behind a crowd of bewildered first-years. As one, they all turned to look at Dasha. Her pale blue eyes seemed to be looking through the crowd at the forest beyond. After a few moments, she finally noticed them. She made a face.

            "Alright. Four to a boat. Don't stick your hands in the water or the giant squid may tear them off." She got in to one of the boats and the first-years reluctantly followed, doing their level best to avoid the water. 

            Uric got in a boat with three other boys who didn't seem inclined to introduce themselves. As soon as they were all in, the boats began moving by themselves, sending up startled cries from some of the students. Uric tried one more time to catch the eye of one of his boat mates, then gave up and leaned over the side to stare at his reflection. 

            He was probably the only one to notice Mena, in the boat next to his, put her hand in the water and trail it along defiantly. Suddenly, a tentacle broke the surface, ruining Uric's reflection. Mena quickly put her hand back inside, and kept it in. 

            Soon, they could see Hogwarts. It was a grand old castle, much larger than the Beaufolle family home. Towers rose at strange angles to conjoin with buttresses leading to nowhere. Lights were flickering on to counter the growing twilight and Uric could see tiny shapes flitting in front of the windows. He had actually been here once before with his father, but that had been by floo powder. The sight of the castle from the outside was rather overwhelming.

            He was so busy looking up that the boat's abrupt docking threw him forward into one of the other boys. Dark eyes glared back angrily at him.

            "Sorry," said Uric. Luckily, the anger seemed to fade quickly away and the boy sighed.

            "It's okay. I'm just a little jumpy." He gazed out over the lake and lowered his voice. "I don't like water."

            "Really? I don't like pudding. I have dreams about how it's going to eat me. Once my mum left me alone in the dining room with some pudding, and it moved at least a foot trying to get at me. Come to think of it, pudding probably doesn't like me either," said Uric seriously. The boy chuckled as if Uric as said something funny, though Uric couldn't imagine what, and offered Uric a hand as they stepped out of the boat.

            "I'm Louis Iliescu," he said. 

            "Uric Beaufolle." They began walking towards the castle.

            "I've heard of your father."

            "Everyone has," said Uric proudly.

            "So what house does he want you to be in?" asked Louis.

            "House?" Uric was confused. 

            "You know. The four founders of Hogwarts. Each has a house named after him or her."

            "Oh. Father didn't say anything," said Uric. Louis seemed depressed by this statement. He looked even more forlorn than he had out on the lake.

            "Lucky you," he said bitterly. Louis took on a mocking tone. "My father didn't technically say anything either. 'Here's your uncle who was in Slytherin and both your parents and, of course, your grandfather…' The list was endless. Then he repainted my room in the Slytherin colors. Talk about a hint." Uric was intrigued.

            "So what will he do if you don't get into Slytherin?" he asked. Louis appeared to consider this as they walked through the Great Doors and into the Entrance Hall.

            "Probably stake me in the heart," he answered. "He could just disown me if he's feeling charitable…No. He'll stake me." Uric looked around the Entrance Hall and the group of first-years curiously. The Great Doors had closed behind the last of the stragglers.

            "First-years," said a quiet, yet imposing voice. Everyone looked around for its source. It was dark in the hall and Dasha was nowhere to be seen. The Great Doors settled on their hinges with a loud boom, causing a few of the students to jump.

            A figure stepped out of the darkness and a girl close to Uric yelped in surprise. He was tall with dark hair and an aristocratic face. Two crossed wands were embroidered above his heart. The white wings gracing his temples lent him a dignified air, despite the bulge in his robes that indicated too much good eating. This worried Uric, but only because the man was standing on his toes.

            "First-years," the man said again. Uric tried surreptitiously easing his foot out from under the man's. The man didn't seem to notice. "I am the Assistant Headmaster, Professor Stewart. I am also the Head of Ravenclaw and your professor for Defence Against the Dark Arts. I expect the utmost respect out of you at all times, especially during the ceremony you are about to partake in."

            Uric could feel tears welling up in his eyes. Professor Stewart's foot would not move. He tugged on Stewart's robes.

            "Excuse me," he said. Stewart looked down at him.

            "Yes?" His tone was icy.

            "Can I have my foot back? I wouldn't mind normally, only my toes are starting to get offended." Uric's voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. "If I offend them too much, they might run off and then how would I walk?" Professor Stewart regarded him with a look usually reserved for extremely rare pathogens and moved his foot off of Uric's. Louis, who had heard everything, was doing his level best not to snicker uncontrollably. Sparing a glance at Louis, Professor Stewart seemed to recover his earlier poise.

            "Don't interrupt me again," he said in a cold tone, then continued his speech. "You will line up alphabetically according to your last names, than proceed in single file into the main hall. Stand in front of the teacher's table. Do not sit down, slouch or fidget. Once the hat is done singing, your names will be called and you will be sorted. Any questions?" He made to line them up, but a blond boy in the middle of the crowd spoke up.

            "If my sister and I have the same last name, which of us lines up first?" Professor Stewart looked annoyed with the golden haired boy, though Uric didn't know why, since he had asked for questions.

            "What are your names?"

            "Alexander and Alexis Lupin sir."

            "Since your name is first alphabetically, you line up first. Next time, try thinking logically before you speak." Alexander's cheeks were flushed with embarrassment. "Now everyone line up!" This was accomplished with much pushing, chatter and general mayhem. Professor Stewart looked angrier as each second ticked away and Uric was reminded of his father. Finally, they were all in a line and quiet, so Professor Stewart opened the inner doors wide and led them through.

            The hall was huge, with four main tables already crowded with students. At the top of the hall was the teacher's table, where Professor Stewart said they were to line up. Uric followed dutifully along with the rest of the first years and found himself out in front of the school much sooner than he thought. The eyes of the whole school were upon them, making the hairs on the back of Uric's neck stand up. He had never been the focus of so much attention in his life. He wondered if you could burst in to flames from too much attention focused on yourself. This would certainly be a good test of his theory. 

            Professor Stewart stood in front of the first-years and addressed the teachers behind them. "May I present the first-years of 1680," he said. Uric wanted to look behind him, but remembering Professor Stewart's instructions, stared straight ahead. This lasted all of twelve seconds but at least he had tried. 

            "Thank you Professor Stewart. You may sort them now," said a woman's voice somewhere near the middle. Uric risked a quick look, and saw a thin woman with blazing, short red hair and a thin smile on her lips. She seemed to be taking great pride in the proceedings.

            Professor Stewart fetched a stool and placed it in front of the line. He then took an old wizards hat and sat it down on top of the stool. Uric ignored this, distracted by the fantastic sunset that was taking place on the ceiling above. The hat began to sing, but Uric wasn't paying attention. After all, every proper hat should be able to sing if nothing else. When the song was finished, Professor Stewart unrolled a scroll and began to speak.

            "When your name is read, you will sit on the stool and place the hat on your head. Understand?" All the first years nodded, except Uric who was now trying to figure out what the tapestries on the walls depicted.

            "Abascu, Ian!" The first boy in line walked up to the stool and even Uric found himself watching to see what would happen. No sooner had the hat touched Ian's head than it shouted out.

            "RAVENCLAW!" Ian walked happily towards the table that was cheering on the left and sat down. 

            "Baker, Milford!" The short boy next to Uric headed nervously up to the stool. The hat spent a few seconds on his head before calling out.

            "GRYFFINDOR!" Milford seemed surprised but walked happily towards the left-most table.

            "Beaufolle, Uric!" called the deputy headmaster. Uric wandered up to the stool, taking a slight detour to get down on his hands and knees to peer at a spider making its determined way across the floor.

            "Uric!" barked Stewart. Uric glanced up at the red-faced professor and went to sit on the stool. There he sat for nearly a minute before Professor Stewart came up and angrily slammed the hat down on his head.

            It was dark and stuffy inside. The hat smelled moldy too…

            "That is because Headmistress Kurze doesn't believe in cleaning me. If she had her way, I'd be burned and she'd chose the student's houses for them." Uric was taken aback by the anger in the hat's voice. He decided to change the subject.

            _Do you like birds?_

            The hat seemed amused. "I'm the one who is supposed to ask the questions here Uric. Now let me get a look inside that head of yours…" The hat trailed off into an uncomfortable silence. Uric began to fidget impatiently. _What if there is a world where all our fingernail clippings go and live in peace, in a land where no nail file may ever roam? _The hat's voice surprised him.

            "Uric. Do you have any idea just how unique you are? I doubt I'll ever meet a mind like yours again, not that that isn't a bad thing…" The hat's sigh seemed to echo through Uric's brain. "These houses weren't made for you Uric, but I do see within you loyalty and love. That's not going to combat the fact that your either a genius or insane, but at least they'll be tolerant of you in HUFFLEPUFF!"

            Uric had time to think a polite thank you at the sorting hat before it was snatched off his head by an irate Professor Stewart.

"Hufflepuff's that way Uric," he said and pointed to the right, middle table. The table was still cheering as he made his way over and sat down. A couple of them patted him on the back, though Uric really wasn't sure why. He hadn't done anything special. 

The fat ghost across from him greeted him jovially and introduced himself as the Fat Friar. Uric nodded politely. There was a ghost in the Beaufolle house known as the Mistress of Cups, due to the fact that she had poisoned herself over 500 years previously. Uric had spent an entire day once following her silently around the house, until finally she told him to go away because he was making her nervous. Uric just wanted to know why she could walk through walls and he couldn't.

There was cheering again and Uric realized with a shock that nearly a third of the sorting was done. The line was a lot shorter and he could see some of the teachers clearly now.

"Harklenon, Justine!" called Professor Stewart. A pretty brown haired girl walked up to the hat and was promptly sorted into Hufflepuff. Uric was nearly deafened by the cheering. 

"Iliescu, Louis!" Uric watched as Louis walked nervously up to the hat. His hair was plastered to his forehead by sweat. The hat covered his head and they waited for almost a minute before a shaking Louis came out from under it.

"SLYTHERIN!" bellowed the hat. Louis gave him a sickly smile as he passed, his face pale. Uric was happy Louis had gotten into the house his father wanted him to be in. He didn't want Louis to be staked. 

"Jabber, Icarus!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Kally, Meriweather!" The brown-haired girl was also sorted into Ravenclaw. "Kullman, Jasper!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Alexander Lupin!" The blond haired boy walked quickly up to the stool in an attempt to remain calm in front of the whole school. He sat for a very long time.

"GRYFFINDOR!" The Gryffindor table cheered, though Alexander looked stunned. He quickly looked back at his sister for support, but she was staring at her feet.

"Alexis Lupin!" Alexis was taller than her brother. While his hair was a dark blonde, hers was a silvery colour making it look almost white in the lights of the Great Hall. She surveyed the hall with a smirk on her face before gently placing the hat on her own head. It took less than a second.

"SLYTHERIN!" Alexis walked easily over to her chosen table without even sparing a glance towards her brother. 

"That one's going to be trouble," said an older boy next to him. Uric turned to look at the boy. He had a square face and a nose that looked like it had been broken many times. His eyes were grey and twinkled with some inner amusement.

            "Why?" Uric asked. The boy surveyed him with those twinkling eyes.

            "Let's just say that I know who will be ruling the first-years in Slytherin house." Uric didn't get it. The boy just shook his head at seeing the puzzlement on Uric's face. "Never mind, Uric was it?" The boy stuck out his hand. "I'm Eustace Hebrides. Fifth year and newly made prefect." He indicated the silver P pinned on his robes. "If you need anything let me know." Uric nodded just as the table started cheering for another new Hufflepuff. He glanced over at the line and saw that there were only eight first years remaining to be sorted. 

            "Smith, Mena!" The dirty, blond haired girl walked confidently up to the hat and jammed it on her head. It took a long time to decide.

            "HUFFLEPUFF!" Mena jerked the hat off her head and stared about in bewilderment and growing dismay. Professor Stewart had to tell her twice to go to her table. She stalked over and rudely pushed Uric into Eustace so she could sit on the end. Mena buried her face in her arms and didn't look up for a long time. 

            "Welcome to Hufflepuff," said the Fat Friar politely to her. Uric was the only one who heard her muffled reply.

            "Yeah. Welcome to Hufflepuff, Mena. Welcome to hell."

*****

Next Chapter: Uric gets a crash course on the teachers at Hogwarts and a taste of life in Hufflepuff. 

Review! My next part may be awhile in coming. If you're bored, (yes, I know I'm shamelessly plugging:) check out my story 'Uric the Oddballs Fantastic Adventures' for some of the weird things the adult Uric gets into.


	3. Prefects and Pontifications

A/N: You're all in luck. I was inspired to write the next part rather quickly. It's amazing what some good reviews will do:)

Disclaimer: Some teachers were based on the group Rockapella at the request of spitgurl and cause I had nothing better to do:) If you know nothing about Rockapella, then you won't even notice. If you do, they don't belong to me, they belong to themselves.

*****

Chapter 3: Prefects and Pontifications

            The Sorting finished quickly, with Uric sitting uncomfortably next to a very depressed Mena. Professor Stewart removed the hat and stool from in front of the teacher's table, pausing to bow to the Headmistress. He found his seat next to Professor Baker, and the Headmistress stood up to give the welcoming speech. The room went utterly silent. 

            "I am Headmistress Kurze. Welcome to Hogwarts, the top magical school in Britain. Here you will embark on an education that will serve you for the rest of your lives. I expect…" Uric lost interest at this point and noticed that Eustace was quietly reading a book under the table. 

            "Eustace?" he whispered.

            "What? We're not supposed to talk."

            "How long will she talk?" Eustace glanced up at Mrs. Kurze, who was expounding on school spirit.

            "It will be awhile Uric. You should at least listen to her speech the first time. Next year you'll know to bring something to occupy your time." He went back to his book and Uric saw that the rest of the table was ignoring Headmistress Kurze as well. A girl in pig-tails was busy sketching her friend, who in turn was working hard on some sort of puzzle. A red headed boy was slowly shredding a copy of the Daily Prophet, while the boy across from him worked industriously on the most complicated paper airplane Uric had ever seen. Except for the first years, no one at the table was paying the Headmistress the slightest attention.

            Uric wondered what the professors thought of this, but a look at the head table revealed a similar state of boredom. Every teacher except Professor Stewart was involved in some other activity, whether writing furiously like the huge, brown-haired professor near the end, or playing with string like Professor Baker. Other teachers were reading or (and this seemed to be the most popular) sleeping. Uric shrugged and devoted some time to a theory of his about midgets and their secret warrior society, The Raging Giants.

******

            A stomach rumbled hungrily, and Uric realized with a start that it was his. He glanced at Headmistress Kurze and wondered how long this would go on. Abruptly, Eustace closed his book and placed it beneath the bench. He saw Uric looking at him and inclined his head towards Mrs. Kurze.

            "She just mentioned how she became Headmistress right?" he asked in a low voice. Uric listened for a moment and nodded. "That means she'll be finishing off soon." Sure enough, Mrs. Kurze spoke a couple more sentences, exhorting them to have a good school year and a couple of other things. 

She stopped talking and slowly the applause grew, as each person looked up from their activities and realized the speech was over. Uric gently nudged Mena who seemed to have fallen asleep, and got a nasty glare for his trouble.

            "Hasn't someone told that woman she's a bloody bore yet?" she said to the table at large. A few of the students glanced at her, but it was Eustace who answered.

            "Considering what she'd do to anyone who did, no." Their plates were filling with food and Uric dug in, listening with only half an ear to the conversation. Mena looked up at the rather harmless looking headmistress. 

            "She can't be that bad," protested Mena. Eustace speared a potato with his fork and pointed it at her.

            "Headmistress Kurze is the scariest person on this earth, with the possible exception of Satan himself. She is horribly strict and those eyes…" He shuddered. "You never want to be called to her office. Every student leaves there crying. You see that boy over at the Slytherin table? The one with the dark brown hair and the build of a beater?" Both Mena and Uric looked to see who he was talking about, and spotted a massive boy who looked more like a rhino than a human being. "That's Stark Chanson. A seventh-year Slytherin. He got called to Kurze's office for fighting and had nightmares for weeks, not to mention the crying and general trauma. Didn't he, Xanos?" The boy next to Eustace nodded and went back to his meat pie. "It was all over the school, and they say that Stark got off lucky. Just trust me when I say never to cross her." Mena still didn't seem convinced, but decided to drop the subject.

            "What about the other teachers? Are they all so bad?" she asked. She didn't seem too interested in eating, but Uric was. He carefully edged a bowl of pudding as far away from him as it could get. It figured that the pudding would try to get at him, even while he was at Hogwarts. He would have to be on his guard.

            "Most of the teachers aren't so bad. You just have to know how to deal with them," explained Eustace. For instance, see Professor Leonard there? Blond hair, skinny and talking to Professor Bear? He teaches Transfiguration, and you'll be all right in his class so long as no one mentions ducks."

            "Ducks?" asked Jasper Kullman from across the table. He had apparently been listening as well.

            "Ducks, mallards, residents of the family antidae, whatever you want to call them. Just don't mention them in his presence!" Eustace said fiercely. Mena and Jasper starred at Eustace like he was insane. Uric, meanwhile, had divided his plate in half and was conducting a war between the peas and the mashed turnips. The peas had just made a daring foray into the turnips, but were about to be pressed back by a counter offensive mounted by the turnip's general. He looked up from the battle, the confusion evident on his face. Had someone said something about ducks?

            "I think they get the point Eustace," said Xanos, "Could you just continue with your acclimation speech before we get the entire rant on why ducks are evil?" Eustace, being older and more mature than the first-years, stuck out his tongue at Xanos.

            "Okay, so there's Professor Bear. That's not his real name, but everyone calls him that. You can see why." Professor Bear was tall, muscular and looked like he could easily give a bear a run for its money. "He teaches History of Magic and has the deepest voice you'll ever hear. Personally, I think he did a sonorous charm that went horribly wrong when he was younger. Next to Bear is Professor Kerman. He's our head of house and teaches Herbology. As long as you don't insult his plants you'll do fine." Professor Kerman was at that moment holding what appeared to be a very serious conversation with a plant on the table in front of him.

            "You should see what he's done to the common room," chimed in Xanos again. 

            "Do you want to tell them about the teachers?" said Eustace in an annoyed voice. Xanos grinned at him.

            "Sure," he said easily, and pointed towards the teachers table. "Kerman's sitting next to Professor Wright, who teaches Arthimancy, not that you'll care about that until third year anyway. He's flirting with Professor Baker, who you probably already met since she rode in the first year coach. Eustace here's got a crush on her." He elbowed his friend.

            "Shut up!" Eustace was blushing slightly.

            "He's in good company. Not only does Baker have half the boys in the school after her. She's got Professor Wright as well. Then again, I've seen Professor Wright flirt with the Headmistress and she's already married to the caretaker!" Xanos saw he was loosing his audience at this point, since eleven year-olds really weren't interested in such mushy things as flirting, and decided to go on with his descriptions.

            "Of course, you've met Professor Stewart," he said. There were nods all around. Even Uric was listening. This was mostly because he had eaten all the turnips, and the peas were in the middle of their celebratory victory, but he was listening. "Stewart's as strict as Kurze, and is intolerant of other peoples weakness'. He likes logic though, so if you can justify everything he'll give you full credit. Let's see…" Xanos was scanning the teacher's table, looking for the ones he wanted. 

            "The one with the short brown hair, adding lots of whip cream to his pie is Professor Thacher. He's Head of Slytherin believe it or not. Don't laugh at his jokes in class. You'll just encourage him." Xanos, finally spotted who he was looking for and pointed proudly. They saw an Indian looking man with dark hair and eyes, chatting happily with a willowy blond woman. "The woman's our new Divination professor, Hirt or something. The man is Bhanu Darshan. The best chaser to come out of India for over four-hundred years. He would have led India to the World Cup last year if it hadn't been for the tragic demise of their Seeker."

            "What's he doing here then?" asked an incredulous Jasper. Xanos shrugged.

            "No one knows. I mean, who in their right mind would give up that sort of job to teach Potions at Hogwarts?" He shook his head. "It just isn't right." 

            "Would someone pass me the chocolate syrup please?" said Uric suddenly. Jasper picked it up and made to hand it to Uric, but froze when he got a look at Uric's plate. Slowly everyone else focused on the plate as well. 

The feast had changed over to dessert while everyone was talking, and Uric had taken full advantage of the change. The various cakes, éclairs, tarts and ice cream had been turned into a scale model of what was obviously Hogwarts, complete with little flying buttresses made of sugar sticks. Uric ignored their stares and leaned forward slightly to remove the small pitcher of chocolate syrup from Jasper's hand. He promptly upended it on the castle, leaving it a gooey, chocolate mess.

"What did you do that for?" demanded Mena. Uric looked at her blankly, then back at the desert castle.

"It was raining," he said. At that moment, the Headmistress chose to stand up and lead them all in the Hogwart's song. She painted the words up in the air in front of them and told them to all sing it to the tune of a popular wizarding song. The first-years valiantly attempted to sing along, except for Uric, who sang to the tune of a lullaby his mother used to sing him instead. The words seemed to fit surprisingly well, even if he did end a couple minutes earlier than everyone else. 

After that, Headmistress Kurze dismissed them. Uric walked reluctantly out, gazing longingly at his uneaten chocolate Hogwarts. Mena followed him, "accidentally" stepping on his heels to keep him moving. She happened to glance up at the enchanted ceiling and saw heavy rain drops falling from a dark, gray sky. She shook her head and followed, the now disappearing Hufflepuffs out the door.

*****

All the first-year Hufflepuffs followed Eustace and his fellow prefect Charis Masterfield through a twist of confusing corridors. Abruptly, Eustace stopped in front of a beautiful painting of a maiden and a unicorn in the middle of an enchanted forest. The Maiden smiled upon seeing them.

"Puffskein," said Charis and the painting swung inward to reveal the Hufflepuff common room. It looked very green, and humidity seemed to be flowing out the door and into the passageway.

"The Maiden doesn't talk, but she'll let you in if you know the password. If you forget, you can always find a prefect and ask," said Eustace as he led them through the entrance. When all of them were in, the painting swung shut behind them, leaving them in what Uric first assumed to be a jungle.

Plants of all shapes and sizes decorated the room. Ivy somehow grew out of the carpet to coat the stone walls and frame the few pictures. Potted plants hung down from the ceiling at various heights, making it impossible to navigate the room without constantly watching where one's head was. A tree actually grew in one corner, its roots twisted into the semblance of a large chair. Flowering vines, crisscrossed the floor and any other open space, leaving very little room for the chairs and couches that were scattered throughout the room. 

"We have to be careful not to set the room on fire in the winter," said Eustace cheerfully, gesturing towards the plant surrounded fireplace. "Luckily, many of the plants are sentient and can move further away when we light the fire." 

"Girls can follow me up to their dorms," said Charis. She led them up a ladder, her long black hair swaying as she climbed. Eustace grinned at the remaining first-years.

"Guess that means I take the boys. Follow me." He headed towards another ladder, this one leading down into a room. Uric wasn't following however. A large painting over by the window had attracted his attention. Strange animals were snuffing about in it and the silly looking creatures enthralled Uric. He tapped impatiently on the shoulder of a girl sitting in one of the chairs reading.

"What are those creatures in the painting?" he asked. She gave him an odd look.

"They're badgers silly. You know? The symbol of our house?" 

"Badgers…" Uric could feel the large grin that split his face. The girl was inching away from him, but Uric turned and went down the ladder to the first-year dorms. He took the only bed that was left, checked on Simon, than got ready for bed. His last thought before he fell asleep was that the Sorting Hat had chosen the right house for him after all.

*****

Thanks to my reviewers Em, Spitgurl and Pez. I'd love to hear more, so please review.

Pez – Thanks about the character names. I tried to take a leaf out of Rowling's book when I chose them. As for Alexis, you're going to have to wait awhile for that one:)

Next Chapter: Uric attends his classes and finds out who his friends, and enemies are. Meanwhile, the teachers learn just how much "fun" it is to have the Oddball in a class.

I'm not sure how long until the next part will be up, depends on my inspiration;)


	4. Uric the Lost Boy

A/N: Okay I lied. I know this chapter was supposed to be about Uric's first classes, but Uric decided he wanted to wake up early and go exploring. Who am I to gainsay him? Anyone know where the title for this chapter comes from?

Chapter 4: Uric, the Lost Boy

            It was dark in the dorm. Uric couldn't even see Simon's cage beside his bed. But he could hear the muffled breathing of the three other boys overlapping with the beating of his heart. He rolled over, burying his face in his pillow in an attempt to get back to sleep. 

            It was no use. He quietly turned over and sat up, his feet dangling over the edge of the bed. Everywhere he looked was an unrelenting blackness, and Uric began to wonder where that pudding from dinner had gotten to. Listening carefully, Uric identified where each bed was by its occupants breathing, or snoring in the case of the one on his right. Using his memory of the room before the lamps had been snuffed, Uric made his careful way across the floor and to the bathroom.

            He entered and closed the door, before turning the knob that magically lit the lamps. He pushed himself up on the edge of the sink and sat with the back of his head against the mirror, his knees pulled up to his chest. Other than the faucet digging into his back, it was rather comfortable. Now, he just had to wait for everyone to wake up.

            The crack in the wall was extremely interesting. What if there were tiny, little people who lived in that crack, the Great Canyon? He could almost see the lights of their windows flickering on and off when he squinted. Uric quickly became absorbed in this new world. 

            The door opened, and in stepped one of his dorm mates. He had dark brown hair that was sticking out in all directions and looked around the room with bleary eyes. Had Uric been paying attention, he would have identified the boy as Alpolonius Nester, or Al to his friends. Uric was instead engrossed in watching one miniscule daredevil's attempt to fly across the Great Canyon on his broom. It was too bad about that crosswind. 

            Al did not seem to register the boy crouched on the sink and starring with great intensity at a miniscule crack in the wall. He walked by Uric, who sunk in the world of the Great Canyon, attributed the momentary dimming of the light to a solar eclipse. He went to the urinal and relieved himself, still more than half asleep. Fumbling with his eyes nearly closed, he reached for the handle on the sink. He got Uric's knee instead.

            Abruptly, their respective realities converged, leaving Uric and Al in a rather awkward position. Uric looked down at Al's hand on his knee and said the only thing he could think of.

             "Would you like my knee?" Alpolonius stared at him, sure that he would awaken in a moment. A moment passed. Uric waited politely for Al's answer, his hazel eyes shinning golden in the lamplight. Al slowly realized that this was not a dream he would be waking up from, and began to get angry. 

             "Are you insane?" he yelled, heedless of the boys in the other room. "Playing a prank at three in the morning?" He looked down, realized his hand was still on Uric's knee and jerked it away. "And such a stupid prank too. You could at least have rigged a dung bomb or something." He tried to stifle a yawn. It was too early to be angry and embarrassed.

            Uric for his part, looked down at the red-faced boy and was at a loss. People had a tendency to accuse him of the weirdest things, and this was one of those times. He opened his mouth to say something, but Al was through with waiting.

            "Get off the sink you jerk!" Al pushed at him angrily, knocking him off the sink and bruising Uric's arm in the process. Uric frowned at the boy from his position on the floor and rubbed his arm. Al finished washing his hands and walked out of the room, turning off the light as he went. He didn't even glance at Uric. 

            Uric stood up, bumping his head on the sink in the process. Something touched his foot, and he bit down on his tongue to keep from yelling, thoughts of pudding rushing through his head. With an agility born of fear, Uric leapt across the room, found the light knob, and frantically twisted it on. There was a fallen washcloth on the floor. Uric sighed.

            He turned off the light and slowly opened the bathroom door. It was still very dark. He made his way over to his bed, but did not get back in. Careful searching at the foot of the bed, revealed a neatly folded robe on top of his trunk. Uric pulled it on and made his way up the ladder and into the common room. 

            In the dim lights of the room, he could see the Hufflepuff insignia that had been sown into the left side of his robes by some industrious house elf. He grinned at the little badger. Suddenly, something hissed at him. Uric stumbled backwards and nearly fell back down the ladder, as a cloud of pink smoke enveloped the space where he had been standing. 

            Perched on the couch nearest him was a decidedly belligerent looking pink and white flower. Its stamen was gyrating rapidly and it appeared to be hissing at him. Pink smoke leaked from the tip of the stamen, giving the flower the appearance of a perpetual smoker. Uric gave it a hurt look then jumped when he felt something curl around his foot. A glance down revealed a vine winding its slow way around his ankle. He shook it off and examined the rest of the room. Everywhere he looked, plants were moving, making the common room resemble a giant snake pit. 

            It made Uric dizzy.

            He brushed by the still crazed pink flower, holding his breath and trying to avoid the writhing vines on the floor. He worked his way quickly to the portal and pushed his way out. The portal shut slowly behind him, revealing a very sleepy Maiden. Uric felt bad about waking her up, but she smiled sleepily at him, put her head back down on the unicorn and went back to sleep.

            Uric turned to his right and headed down a dimly lit corridor. He was used to big castles. He had grown up in one after all, but Hogwarts was, well, more magical than anything he was used to. The stairs seemed to be playing leapfrog with each other, making them nearly impossible to climb, and corridors seemed to be switching places and orientation on a regular basis. One particularly vicious carpet nearly gnawed Uric's socks off before he got away. 

            He managed to get totally lost in about ten minutes. This wasn't exactly hard in a castle that had more secret corridors than it had students, but it was a special achievement for an eleven-year old boy who had memorized the layout of his own castle at the age of five. 

            Hogwarts was enough to befuddle the most perfect sense of direction, so Uric didn't really mind being lost. All he had to do was wander around for a couple of hours until everyone woke up. Eventually he would run into someone who knew where to go. 

            Besides, Hogwarts at four am was one of the most interesting places Uric had ever seen. He watched, nonplussed, as two suits of armour waltzed by while a violin playing itself, followed behind. He wished he had Simon with him. The bird-lizard loved music, and enjoyed singing along, so long as he thought no one was looking. Uric of course didn't count. Simon thought his master was a bird, and half the time Uric agreed with him. 

            The violin disappeared around a corner, and a gust of wind blew down the corridor, snuffing the lights. A ghost horse with a knight in glowing armour rode by. The knight looked rather angry, but that might have been the spear through its head. Uric pressed himself against the wall, unwilling to suffer the chill that came every time a ghost passed through the living. The knight passed and the lamps came back on.

            Uric realized that although his back was up against one of the many tapestries that lined Hogwarts walls, the tapestry was not lining a wall. He pushed the fabric to one side and found himself gazing into a green-lit corridor. Uric looked back into the hallway, saw he was alone except for the statue of Flummoxed Francis, and ducked into the corridor.

            He walked slowly down the passage, the green light making his shadow dance against the floor before him. Uric thought it was one of the neatest places he had found so far, and his shadow agreed. A shaft of white light slanted down the passageway, splitting his shadow in half. Uric turned to look, and saw the strangest thing.

            The tapestry was twisted back and around the arm of a strange witch. She was wearing grey robes and had unruly brown hair. Her face was screwed up with anger as she tugged on some sort of silvery blanket that was twisted around the tapestry. Uric thought he heard her curse.

            "Excuse me?" Uric said, "Would you like any help?" The woman looked at him, then back at her predicament. Uric definitely heard her curse this time. She frantically pulled out her wand, pointed it at the tapestry and muttered a spell. With a large ripping sound, the tapestry came loose and the woman ran off, dragging the tapestry behind her. Uric considered following her but was distracted by his shadow doing a passing imitation of a flamenco dancer. 

            "Boy!" said a voice out of nowhere. Uric tore his eyes away from his shadow. There was a man on the steps. His wispy, white hair glowed green in the light and he held himself with the slight stoop of the extremely old. He wore an old, white nightgown and slippers. He had a magical lamp in his hand. It was the lamp that had been causing Uric's shadow to dance. Uric found him self strangely disappointed.

            "Yes sir?"

            "Who was that woman, boy?" the old man asked. Uric look at him blankly.

            "A woman, sir." The old man looked annoyed.

            "Yes. I noticed that," he said. He shook his head. "I don't know why I expected you to know anyway." He seemed to see Uric for the first time. "You're a first year aren't you? What are you doing up and about at this time of the morning?" Uric looked at his shadow then back at the old man.

            "Exploring, sir. I'm sorry to wake you," said Uric politely. The old man frowned at him.

            "Let me give you some advice, boy. This corridor has an alarm on it because it leads to the Headmistress' office. You don't want to go there. My wife will eat you for breakfast."

            "Your wife?" Uric was curious.

            "Yes. I'm Mr. Kurze. I take care of the school, while my wife runs it. It's a good system." He seemed to be trying to reassure himself.

            "But you're scared of her," said Uric, who technically wasn't afraid of anything other than a light fruit pudding. Mr. Kurze smiled wanly.

            "And there's a good reason for that, boy. You mark my words, if you keep wandering around at night like this, you'll learn exactly what I'm talking about. Now," He clapped one of his hands against his thigh. "What house are you in?"

            "Hufflepuff."

            "Well, two points from Hufflepuff. Now get back to your common room, and don't go wandering through green-lit corridors."

            "But…" protested Uric. 

            "Don't but me, boy. Now get before I take off more points," said Mr. Kurze in a gruff tone. Uric shrugged and walked back out into the now exposed hallway. For no particular reason, he decided to go left. As he had tried to tell Mr. Kurze, he was still lost.

*****

            Uric jumped on the banister and slid down feet first. It bucked under him, but he held on until he reached the end. He flew off and went sliding across the polished floor. Uric came to an abrupt stop against someone's feet. He looked up.

            "Hi Mena. What are you doing up at five in the morning?" he asked. Her blond hair hung limp and uncombed around her shoulders, and her robe was crooked.

            "It's six now, Uric, and Al said you left the dorm at 3am and he hadn't seen you since. We were worried you would be caught, and get points taken away."

            "Oh, that already happened," said Uric cheerfully. He stood up and carefully brushed away the dust on his robes.

            "What? You tell me what happened Uric or I'll…I'll punch you." She held up a fist. Uric regarded her curiously. Were all muggles this violent?

            "I met Mr. Kurze, and he took away some points, and told me to go back to the common room. Only I was lost, and I couldn't find the common room, though I did find this really neat room full of biting teacups…" Mena placed her hand over his mouth. She put her face next to his, and Uric froze.

            "How many points, Uric?" Her voice was very low.

            "Two," he said. She released him.

            "Two! You go out wandering at three in the morning, and Mr. Kurze only takes away two points. You didn't even get a detention?" she demanded. 

            "No. Right, Mr. Kurze?" he asked. Mena froze, and turned slowly around. Sure enough, Mr. Kurze stood in the doorway behind them. This time he was fully dressed. They could see a thick sweater beneath his plain black robes.

            Uric waved.

            Mr. Kurze shook his head. "You're insane, boy. You know that right?" Uric nodded his head politely, though he knew nothing of the sort. Mr. Kurze looked between the two students and came to a decision.

            "The next time I see you two this morning, you had better be eating breakfast," he warned. Then he walked out the door. They were left alone on the landing. Uric turned to Mena.

            "Want to see the biting teacup room?" he asked eagerly. Mena punched him. 

*****

Mena's rather violent isn't she? 

Thank you to all my reviewers (and my new one, Anne). It's great to see what you all think. Writing has been a good escape for the past couple of days, if you know what I mean.

And now for the specifics:

PEZ: I'm glad you liked the food fighting. Uric doesn't seem to have a very long attention span does he? As for the rain, there are three possible interpretations for that part of the chapter. One: Uric looked up, saw it was raining and poured chocolate on his castle. Mena just didn't notice the rain until they were leaving. Two: Uric knew it was going to rain and poured the chocolate on to be realistic. Three: Uric wanted it to rain, poured the chocolate on and therefore made it rain over Hogwarts. Don't count of me to explain which of them it is, anytime soon:)

Em: I agree with you about the older Uric. Unfortunately, I started that fic before this one; with the idea Uric was insane. Oh well. Maybe I should just claim the older Uric is from an AU…Thank you for reading the other story anyway.

Spitgurl: Methinks I doth see a Rockapella fan…Seriously, I like them too. My favorite song is Zombie Jamboree and I would recommend them to anyone who asks:)

Next Chapter: The classes. I promise.


	5. Class Notes

A/N: Sorry this took so long to get out, but I just started university in Edinburgh and it takes forever for them to let you on the internet. And then, of course, ff.net went down...

Chapter 5: Class Notes

            They arrived on time for breakfast, but only through Mena's stubborn insistence. Uric sat down and was immediately engrossed in planning a foray of his soldiers against the evil bacon king. Unfortunately for the war effort, others sought Uric's attention. 

            "Hey, Uric," said Jasper. "Where were you this morning? Al tells me you've been up since three. Haven't you ever heard of a little thing called sleep?" He had an amused grin on his face, but Al was glaring darkly at Uric. 

            Uric regretfully ate one of his soldiers, and adopted his usual perplexed expression. "I was asleep," he said. Mena groaned. 

            "He means the whole night Uric. Most sane people try to get more than four hours of sleep," she explained. 

            "Well that explains it. Uric's not really sane, now is he?" said Neil McGowan. The red-headed boy's bed was next to Uric's and he had already heard his roommate's reputation. Many of the students at the table nodded in agreement; well aware that Uric's breakfast bore an uncanny resemblance to a map of Europe with opposing armies advancing upon it.

            "I don't need to sleep that much. Mum says it's because I used up all my sleeping time when I was a baby, so now I have to ration it if I want to sleep at all when I'm older." Uric cocked his head thinking. "Of course, the house elves said I've never slept a full night in my life. That's why they had to play with me whenever I woke up." 

            "Your poor parents," said a rather tired looking Eustace. Prefects were required to patrol the halls on certain nights, and last night had obviously been his. "No wonder they let the house elves take care of you." Uric shrugged.

            "I like house elves. I would have played with them earlier today, but I couldn't find them." He neglected to mention that he had never really been looking for them. Eustace grimaced.

            "Yes, well, that is the other thing I must mention. You can't just go wandering around at night Uric. We could loose a bunch of house points. You got off lucky this morning," he said. 

            "But if I don't go out, how will I find the badgers?" 

            "The badgers?" Eustace looked flummoxed. Dealing with Uric on no sleep was not a good idea.

            "Yes. The badgers. They live in the walls," said Uric. Eustace buried his head in his hands then spoke in a muffled voice.

            "Look, Uric. I don't care if you need one hour of sleep or ten. If you get caught wandering around again you will be in big trouble, with me and Mrs. Kurze." Xanos, who was sitting next to him, winced.

            "That's harsh, Eustace..." He began, but stopped as he noticed his friend's head drooping slowly to his chest. All the first-year's eyes were now on him. Well, everyone except Uric, who had gone back to his war. The toast was attempting to negotiate a peace, but it was on limited time because Uric was hungry. 

            "Uric." Xanos waited. "Uric." The boy looked up, toast poised. "Don't get into anymore trouble. Eustace is tired now, but he will make sure you regret it. Though hopefully he won't involve that harpie." He inclined his head slightly towards where the Headmistress sat straight and proud, eating her eggs with the grace of a well-bred lady. "It would be as much a punishment for him, as for you." Their schedules arrived then, and everyone was busy looking to see which classes they had first. 

            Uric opened his, read it once, and then folded it into a hat he would give Simon later. He would have gone back to his battle, but Mena poked him in the ribs.

            "What do you have first, Uric? Can I see your schedule?" she asked. Justine spoke up from beside her.

            "He should have what we all have Mena. Why do you want to know anyway?" Justine was just curious, but Mena took it the wrong way.

            "I was hopping I didn't have classes with him, that's all. You should mind your own business!" Justine was taken aback.

            "Alright," she said quietly, than went back to her eggs. Mena stared at her for a moment, realizing she had hurt the girl, but not sure how to make things right. Then she got angry at herself for worrying about it. Who cared what Justine thought? She looked down at her schedule again. History of Magic. She made a face. It even sounded boring. 

            She got up from the table, intending to get her books and head for class. Half way to the door, she stopped and turned back. Uric was drawing pictures with his leftover egg yolk. She sighed, walked over to him, grabbed his collar and pulled him off the bench. Maybe he wouldn't lose them too many house points if she kept an eye on him.

*****

            All the first-year Hufflepuffs went to History of Magic together, mostly so they wouldn't get lost. Unfortunately, this meant that they all got lost together, were attacked by Peeves the Poltergeist, and made it to History of Magic ten minutes late, their robes covered in glitter from Peeves sparkle bombs. 

            Professor Bear sat at his desk, his large body looking absurd in the small chair he was using. He looked up when they entered and smiled at their glitter bedecked bodies. The professor cast a simple spell to remove the glitter and asked them to take their seats. Mena tried not to giggle when he first spoke. Eustace had been right. His voice was so deep it made her stomach rumble. 

            Professor Bear read off the register and even Uric responded when his name was called. Mena wondered if the professor knew just how rare it was to get Uric's full attention. One of the Slytherin girls, Seraph Cazher, was missing, however, and when Professor Bear asked for her, it was a pale, blonde haired girl who answered.

            "Professor Thacher is lecturing her right now and she's been given detention." The girl did not sound very upset by the information, even though Slytherin must have lost a load of points. Professor Bear looked shocked at such an early infraction of the rules.

            "Thank you, Alexis. I think that was a little more information than we needed though," he chided gently. 

            "I'm sorry, Sir." Alexis was the picture of submissiveness and Mena snorted softly to herself at the act. Her mother would have seen through that ploy in seconds, but Professor Bear seemed to take the girl at face value.

            "It's okay, Alexis. Everyone please take out a quill and some parchment. We have a prodigious amount of history to cover and only seven years to do it." His face sported a huge grin, though all his students were stifling groans. 

            Over an hour later they were still bent over their parchments, quills scribbling furiously in an attempt to keep up with Professor Bear and his animated lecture style. He would write a sentence on the board with his wand, then remember a funny anecdote from that time period and launch off on a story about Chester the Confused or Stub-toothed Tovar. Then, he would suddenly remember the sentence he had written on the board and expound upon it in great length and at twice the speed. Some of the slower students were nearing tears trying to keep up with the professor's strange pacing. Not to mention his use of words that Mena was sure weren't in any dictionary, muggle or wizard. 

            Abruptly Professor Bear stopped talking and stared at them all. Most of the students were still scribbling his last words. Mena wrote the date of the great Egyptian wizard, Amhotep the Wise's death and looked up to see that big smile she remembered from the beginning of the class plastered across Professor Bear's face. 

            "Everybody put your writing implements down," he said. The students looked up at him in shock but did what they were ordered (once they realized what implements were that is). "Did anybody read your textbooks before coming to this class?" Several students raised their hands. "Then why were you taking notes?" Everyone stared at him blankly, sure that there was some logic lurking behind his question, but being unable to discern it.

Professor Bear focused on a Uric who was, unfortunately, sitting next to her. She looked at him as well, and saw to her shock that he hadn't been taking notes. In fact, there was nothing on his desk except for his wand. 

"Uric. Right?" asked Professor Bear. Mena kicked Uric under the table, and he nodded, though she was sure he had no idea what the question had been. "Well, Uric was the only one of you who read the textbook, since he obviously found the sentence on page 678 telling you not to take notes on the premiere day of class, since class notes would be provided for you. Ten points to Hufflepuff." Uric was shaking his head 'no', so Mena kicked him under the table again. He gave her a hurt look.

"Leave it alone," she hissed at him. He looked at her for a moment, than shrugged. Professor Bear handed out the class notes, which were considerably neater than any the students had taken, and dismissed them for their next class. 

"Let's go find the first year Ravenclaws and see what they'll pay us to know about the class notes." Mena heard Alexis say as she left the class. Meanwhile, the Hufflepuffs were congratulating Uric on his studious efforts. Mena decided to put a stop to that.

"Did you actually read the textbook Uric?"

"Yes," he said. That took her aback. Why had he been shaking his head 'no' then? Uric continued. "I read it a couple of years ago. I don't remember a sentence like that."

"Well, they wouldn't have bespelled the book pages a couple of years ago, would they?" said Al. His disgust with Uric was rather evident, but Justine was puzzled.

"Why didn't you take notes then Uric?" she said in her soft foreign accent. 

"I don't believe in ink."

"What?!" said the rest of them simultaneously.

"Really, if you think about it, ink is a very dangerous medium. Anything you write down could come back and destroy you." Somebody had to ask the inevitable question.

"So what do you write with Uric?" said Neil. Uric looked at Neil curiously. 

"Ink of course. What else would I write with?" he said. Neil's mouth dropped open.

"But you just said..." he protested. Mena decided to insert a note of reality into the proceedings. 

"We're all going to be late for Charms if we don't get moving," she said. The Hufflepuffs took off for their next class, while deep within their textbooks the letters and words breathed a sigh of relief. Their secret was safe for a little longer. 

Meanwhile, Uric, the future Oddball, debated to himself whether plaid could be considered a proper skin colour...

*****

Well, this chapter was going to be a bit longer, but I decided to end it here and actually post something. I'll definitely try to make the next chapter longer. Big thanks to Em, Spitgurl, Anne, and PEZ.

Next Chapter: Charms, then everyone's favourite class - Potions. 


	6. Points and Parchments

A/N: I saw the movie! Okay I'm done now…

Chapter 6: Points and Parchments

            The Hufflepuffs made it to Charms without incident and took their seats. Neither the teacher nor their counterparts from whichever house, were there. Perhaps five minutes later a man in dark blue robes with lots of parchments in his arms entered the room. He looked around at the lot of them, his expression totally bewildered.

            "Is this the Charms classroom?" he asked. They all stared at him. Mena was the only one brave enough to answer.

            "Yes sir," she said.  He smiled at her. 

            "I've been teaching here for over four years. You'd think I would know how to find my own classroom," he said in a genial tone. Mena could only nod. This really wasn't what you expected from the Head of Slytherin. 

            "Right. Well…" He looked around the room. "If I'm not mistaken I'm missing a number of students. Anyone happen to know where they are?"

            "No sir. We don't even know which house is supposed to be here," said Al. 

            "Hmmm," Professor Thacher sat down and looked over his class roster. "Let's see. Seraph Cazher. Louis Iliescu. Alexis Lupin. Athar Starling. Sounds a bit like my first-year Slytherins." No one said anything. They had just had class with the Slytherins and they definitely should have made it to Charms by now. It was also hard to tell if Professor Thacher was joking about not recognizing them. He did not seem inclined to say anything more and they sat in an uncomfortable silence. Well, most of them sat in an uncomfortable silence. A glance at Uric revealed he was staring intently at the ceiling with that goofy smile of his gracing his face. Mena snorted under her breath. Uric probably found the Charms professor perfectly normal. 

            Almost twenty minutes later the door opened and the Slytherins filed in with Alexis Lupin at their head. She came to stand in front of Thacher's desk, motioning behind her back for the others to take their seats. There was a pretty, red-haired girl with freckles who hadn't been in History of Magic. Mena assumed it was the infamous Seraph. She turned her attention back to Alexis and found the white-haired girl in the middle of an impossibly long and convoluted explanation of where the Slytherin first-years had been. 

            If Mena had been a professor, she wouldn't have believed a word of it. And in truth Professor Thacher didn't seem to believe it. He smiled at the girl and asked her a question causing her to scramble for an answer that wouldn't incriminate her and the rest of the Slytherins. When Alexis was unable to think of something, she actually began to cry. The whole class could hear her quiet sobs. Professor Thacher seemed taken aback by this and quickly let her and all the Slytherins off the hook. Alexis turned around, and gave her housemates a knowing grin, while the Hufflepuffs gaped in astonishment. They had never seen anyone so openly manipulate a teacher.

            They had little time to consider Alexis' methods however, since Professor Thacher actually began to teach now that his students were all there. The class was interesting. Mena had a feeling she was going to enjoy Charms, but she was as glad as everyone else when it ended, and they were able to go to lunch. 

*****

            It was a long trek down to the Potion's dungeon. So long in fact, that Uric began contemplating the number of steps in Hogwarts. He thought about his midnight meanderings. If his count was accurate, there were approximately 145 staircases, each of a varying length. Each staircase, averaged out to about 60 steps each. That meant that there were 8,700 steps in Hogwarts. But you had to take into account all the tiny sets of steps, like the three steps leading out of the boy's lavatory. Which meant a more accurate number was around 8,760, give or take a few hundred. He wondered if there was a place he could check his answer, and turned to ask Mena if she would know. 

            He found himself facing a suit of armour instead. 

            "Erm, Hello." The armour began cackling evilly. Uric took a step back, which turned out to be a bad thing, since the stair curved at that point and he stepped right off the edge. Uric shut his eyes tightly as he fell. He didn't want to see this.

            Consciousness returned and Uric found himself on his back looking up. Two faces were peering down at him.

            "Hi Louis. Hi Mena. Did you see me fall? Because I didn't. Do either of you know where I could find out how many steps there are in Hogwarts?" He smiled at them, and saw Louis shake his head. 

            "Well his head hasn't been hurt," Louis said. Mena looked at him.

            "How can you tell?" She took a closer look. "Aren't you a Slytherin?" Louis looked down at himself.

            "Why so I am. I was wondering why that snake was sewn on my robes," he said. Mena gave him a strange look. 

            "Are you always this sarcastic?" she asked. 

            "Yes." He looked down at Uric who was humming to himself. "You can get up if you're alright Uric. We do have classes to get to. And you should try looking in Hogwarts: A History, or maybe asking the librarian." Uric pushed himself up, noting that his shin was aching, but decided to ignore it.

            "Okay. Are you coming to Potions with us?" he asked. Louis adopted a tone many people used to talk to Uric, the tone of an adult explaining something to a child.

            "No Uric, I'm not in your class. I was just picking up some books for Transfiguration."

            "The Slytherin Common Room is all the way down here?" said Mena. "How do you ever get to classes on time?" 

            "We don't. Didn't you see that masterful performance by Alexis in Charms?" Mena snorted.

            "All she did was lie, and then cry in front of the teacher. Anyone could do that," she said. Louis shrugged. 

            "But only a Slytherin would use it to get out of a detention. Which is the whole point. Look, why don't we meet after classes in the library and discuss the whole house issue thing, and maybe help out the librarian when she meets the conundrum that is Uric. Okay?" Uric was already nodding, though in truth he had missed half the conversation when he noticed the suit of armour from before, making rude gestures at him from the top of the stairs. Mena considered for a second before nodding as well. "Right then. See you after class." Louis ran off, and Mena quickly pulled Uric down another set of stairs. She smacked him upside the head when she realized he was counting them.

*****

            The Potions classroom was at the very bottom of the castle, and judging by the manacles on the walls, had recently been converted over for the student's use. Despite the general dreariness of the room, Professor Darshan had peppered the walls with brightly coloured parchments, saying such helpful things as "Keep your eyes on the cauldron!" and listing the recipe for a good Potions class. Uric started reading them with fascination as soon as he got in the room ignoring the rest of the class and Mena's frantic tugs on his arm. She glanced over at the professor to see if he had noticed. 

            Professor Darshan was sitting at his desk, wearing elaborate spring green robes.  A light blue hat in an unfamiliar style was perched on his dark hair. He was smiling happily to himself as he read something on his desk. Mena gave up on Uric and went to find a seat, noting that there were only three empty seats left, none of which were at the same table. Uric was going to have to sit with someone other than her. There went Hufflepuff's points in Potions for the year. 

            She sat down next to an unfamiliar girl, absently noting the blue hawk embroidered on the girl's robe. So this was the Ravenclaw class. She looked around and spotted someone she recognized. Sitting in the front of the class was Varys Nachleen. She glared at the back of his head, still mad at him for making her look foolish in front of everyone on the train. She had to give up after awhile though, when her eyes began hurting. 

            Professor Darshan appeared to finish whatever he was reading and stood up to address the class. Rather, he tried to stand up but found his robes glued to the seat. A lot of laughter and an ungluing charm later, he was standing in front of the room taking the roll. All went smoothly until Uric's name was called. 

            Uric had, by now, read every parchment on the walls and for some reason had taken one off. While Professor Darshan was talking, he had climbed up on top of the professor's desk and was busy sticking the parchment to the ceiling. The entire class was watching Uric with an ominous fascination, barely noticing when their own names were called. Sure, Professor Darshan had taken the sticky robes joke well, but what would he do if he found a student on top of his desk?

            "Uric Beaufolle?" Uric took no notice. He was on his tiptoe's trying to secure one of the corners of the parchment. "Uric Beaufolle? Does anyone know where Uric is?"

            "He is behind you on top of your desk," said Varys in a casual tone. Mena was seething inside. He was going to get Uric in trouble. Ten more seconds and Uric would have been off the desk. Professor Darshan turned around. Uric was looking down at him, one hand still on the parchment.

            "Good evening, Sir," said Uric. They couldn't see Professor Darshan's face, but they could hear him. 

            "Good evening, Uric. What are you doing up there?" he asked. Uric stated the obvious.

            "Moving one of the parchments." 

            "Well, would you mind getting down and taking a seat. That way I can introduce myself and we can get on to the fun stuff." Uric nodded and jumped lightly off the desk. He spotted an empty seat near the front and sat down. "Oh, and Uric?" Uric looked up. "Would you mind not climbing on my desk again?" 

            "Yes, Sir." Uric paused. "Is the chair alright, Sir? How about the student's tables? Can I climb on those?" Professor Darshan laughed, and Mena knew he thought that Uric was joking. 

            "Not while I'm watching you can't." Uric nodded to himself, though Mena couldn't even think of a reason why he would want to climb on chairs and tables in the first place, or move parchments to the ceiling for that matter. She would have asked him had he been sitting near her, but Uric was on his own. She glanced over at Varys again.

            He didn't like Uric. She had noticed it on the train, which was part of the reason she had defended him, but Uric had no clue. He had only responded to the boy when he had insulted Simon of all things. She shook her head. "Why the ceiling?," she said under her breath. The Ravenclaw girl looked at her strangely and edged away. Mena didn't notice.

*****

            Uric liked the Potions classroom. He liked the professor as well. Not everyone would give him permission to climb on the desks. He listened intently to what the professor was saying, wondering if he would explain what all the strange sentences on the parchments meant. He was slightly disappointed when the professor started talking about himself instead.

            "To start off I'm going to tell you a bit about myself. Then we'll have a little test and spend the rest of the time getting to know each other. Okay?" He didn't wait for their reaction, which was mostly to groan at the word test. "My full name is Bhanu Darshan. I am 27 years old and for the past six years I was a Chaser on the the Raging Tigers, the official team of India. But that was not my dream. I've always wanted to be a Potions Master. When the opportunity came to teach here, I resigned my position before the day was out and flew here." He was smiling broadly at them.

            "What?" exclaimed a voice in the back. Uric turned in his seat to see a pimply-faced boy with brown hair. His face was turning red as he talked to the professor. "You gave up being Chaser on one of the greatest Quidditch teams this century to teach Potions?!" He was an obvious Quidditch fan. A little golden snitch hovered above the Ravenclaw emblem on his robe. Uric found it fascinating to watch. 

            "But this is my dream!" Something in the professor's voice made Uric turn around. The professor's dark eyes were shinning with a fervour that was usually reserved for mad scientists, or religious fanatics. "Potions are the most fantastic things in the world. With a potion you can do anything a wand can do, but you don't need magic to do it. The implications of that are astonishing." He was pacing agitatedly now, and waving his hands in the air. "Why, we could learn how to cure lycanthropy or stopper death!" 

            "He's bonkers." Uric heard a boy behind him whisper. The professor continued his rant about Potions, but Uric had stopped listening when a thought about the mating habits of books intruded in his brain. There had to be a reason why the number of books under his bed seemed to multiply exponentially at every turn. It never occurred to him that he might be putting them there.

            Uric's thoughts were interrupted by a piece of parchment being placed on his desk. He looked up and saw the professor walk by him, placing a parchment on everyone's desks. He turned to the girl sitting next to him. 

            "What is this?" He indicated the parchment. She gave him an incredulous look.

            "It's our tests. Just fill it out and stop talking, or else he might think we're cheating." She turned back to her own parchment, dipped her quill in her ink and wrote the name Nascha Ollivander on the top of her test. Uric turned to his own paper. 

            Ink. He needed ink. He got out the ink and a quill. He signed his name to the top of the paper with a flourish, consciously imitating the way he had seen his father do it so many times before. He read the first question to himself. 

            "What type of potions are Jobberknoll feathers used in?" Uric grinned. He knew how to answer that one. 

            "Memory potions and truth serums," he wrote carefully in the space provided them. He went on to answer questions about knotgrass, bezoars and shrivelfigs. He described the purposes of several potions and quickly wrote the essay at the bottom of the page asking about the possible uses of a unicorn horn in a potion. 

            He blew on the page to make sure the ink was dry, than pushed the paper to the edge of his desk. He was putting away his things when a shadow fell on the desk. He looked up. 

            "Finished already Uric?" asked Professor Darshan, smiling broadly. Uric just nodded. "Can I take it then?" Uric nodded again. Darshan took the test then crossed the room to the desk across from Uric, where Varys was sitting. Uric had noticed the boy before, but hadn't really bothered to look in that direction. He could still remember Varys saying that Simon would die before Halloween. But, then again, he had always been taught to be polite to people and give them second chances. He looked at the boy now, seeing that Professor Darshan had taken Varys' test as well and was sitting at his desk grading them. 

Uric's hazel eyes met Varys' blue ones. Uric smiled tentatively, but Varys's face was cool and expressionless. A closer look revealed that there was anger in those bright blue eyes. Uric's smile turned into a frown. Why was Varys angry now? He didn't have Simon with him…He turned uncomfortably to sit straight in his seat, ignoring the dark-haired boys stare. It was safer to think about simple things, like how to defeat a Quintaped…

Professor Darshan waited patiently for everyone to finish their tests, while Uric drifted off into his own world, though to be more precise it was the world of the Flibbergidgets and Uric was only visiting. 

Darshan then gave them an assignment to find out as much as possible about their Potion's partner before sitting down to grade the tests. Uric listened politely as Nascha told him all about how she was the second child of the current proprietor of the famous wand shop, Ollivander's, how she loved dragons and how hard that test had been even though she had read the first four chapters of the Potions textbook before class. Uric, in turn, confessed that he had read the whole text book before hand, as well as some other books and found the test very easy, that he loved badgers, was deathly afraid of pudding and didn't she think breathing would be easier if everyone had their lungs on the outside? 

He was telling her all about Simon when Professor Darshan got up and redistributed the tests to their respective owners. Uric waited expectantly for his, but it never came. Instead Darshan strode up to the front of the class. He held up two parchments in his hands.

"Now, I want to assure you that the mark you received on this test counts as only a small part of your grade." Some audible sighs of relief could be heard. "But I wanted to honour those of you who show a true understanding of the Potions art. To Varys for getting 98 out of 100 on the test. Ten points to Ravenclaw." Uric risked a glance at Varys and saw he was smiling as his friends patted him on the back and congratulated him. He turned his attention back on the professor. "And to Uric, for scoring a perfect, I award Hufflepuff fifteen points." Now it was Uric's turn to be congratulated, but he couldn't help but see Varys angry stare out of the corner of his eye. Was Varys angry about the test or was Uric's hair messy again? Uric redid his braid just in case. 

After the last class, Professor Darshan sat down in the chair behind his desk. It had been a long day. He took a deep breath than stretched back as far as he could go without tipping the chair over. As he did so, a flash of colour on the ceiling caught his eye. He froze.

There in brilliant blue letters on a yellow background were the words, "Do you know where your badgers are?"

*****

For the record, Hogwarts has 142 staircases, so Uric's count was a bit off…not that it really matters anyway:) The Jobberknoll feathers and other Potions ingredients are all mentioned somewhere in the various books. 

If anyone would like an email letting them know when a new chapter is up, please let me know in the review. I have absolutely no idea who is getting author alerts these days…and since I'm sending out the email anyway, I'd be happy to add anyone onto the list. 

Thanks to Triskelion, VyingQuill~, Admiral Albia, Blotts101, Spitgurl, Anne, Mad Potter, PEZ and Em. 

Spitgurl – I fixed Professor Bear's speech. You were absolutely right about his vocabulary. I just only remembered after posting it:) 

Next Chap: Defense Against the Dark Arts, Halloween and a visit to Mrs. Kurze. 


	7. Bits and Bobs

A/N: I am so sorry this took so long. I had to rewrite this chapter five times before I was satisfied with it. I'm still not satisfied with Professor Stewart's scene, but I don't think I ever will be…Good news is that I wrote some of the later part of the story as an attempt to get over my writer's block, so the later chapters should come a bit faster. 

Also, this chapter skips in time a bit since I realized it would be a very long story if I continued to write over a chapter a day. So consider at least a month passing between this chapter and the last. 

*****

Chapter 7: Bits and Bobs

            Uric awoke with a start, from a nightmare involving giant stuffed toy bears, people with French accents, and, of course, pudding. He lay there in the dark and quickly checked that all of his body parts were intact. Once he was assured of the continued existence of his limbs, he jumped out of the bed and threw on his robes. He grabbed a sleepy Simon out of his cage and headed up the ladder. Avoiding the plants with an ease born of many mornings of experience, Uric waved a jaunty hello to the sleepy badgers in the painting, then left the common room. 

            Uric wandered around the castle like he always did, though at this time of night, it was more like it wandered around him…

*****

            Uric sang a little tune, and found Simon joining in. He was so preoccupied with his singing that he didn't even notice the pair of legs in front of him until he ran into them. Uric looked up. 

            "Good morning, Mr. Kurze." Simon chirped along with him. The old man looked down at Uric and produced a sigh. 

            "Good morning, Uric. Should I even ask what you are doing down here?"

            "Well, first I followed these chairs that were floating down one of the corridors, than I heard a great –"

            "Yes. Yes. I get the idea, Uric. Every night it's the same thing, isn't it? You hear or see something and off you go. Not to mention your erstwhile pursuit of badgers," said Mr. Kurze. Uric nodded his head, pleased that Mr. Kurze understood. 

            "Well, two points from Hufflepuff, and get your self back up to the inhabited parts of the castle would you? These dungeons aren't safe at night and I guarantee there are no badgers down here." 

            "Yes, Sir." Uric turned around and headed back for one of the stairways he remembered. He wondered if he could find that room with the honey river again… 

            "Uric! Uric!" Uric looked back at Mr. Kurze. "You'll let me know if you see that woman again won't you, Uric?"

            "Woman?" asked Uric in a puzzled tone. Mr. Kurze sighed again.

            "That woman you saw the first night you were here."

            "Oh, I see her all the time," said Uric. Mr. Kurze went very still.

            "You what? Where?"

            "She watches me when Professor Stewart makes me run around the castle. Every time I said hello to her she vanished. So I stopped saying hello to her and she stopped vanishing." He smiled, very pleased with his solution to the problem. Mr. Kurze had a serious expression on his face however. He put his hands on Uric's shoulders, holding him so that Uric had to look him in the eyes.

            "This is very important, Uric. I need you to tell me when you see her again," said Mr. Kurze.

            "But I can't."

            "Why not?" demanded the older wizard.

            "Professor Stewart said I wasn't to stop running until he said so."

            "And I'm sure he doesn't say so until a very long time has passed," said Mr. Kurze almost to himself. "I don't know what you do to that man in his class…No. On second thought I know exactly what you do. You don't fit into his logical world and it offends him…" Mr. Kurze trailed off. Uric was still looking expectantly at him, but the light that came to Uric's eyes when his attention was focused on this world was absent.

            "Uric?" he asked. Uric seemed to come out of a trance.

            "Why do you think people grow beards, Sir? And why don't they like birds to nest in them? If I had a beard, I'd let a bird nest in it." Mr. Kurze found his hand rubbing the stubble on his chin and jerked it away.

            "That's not important Uric. I'm going to talk to Professor Stewart and see if I can work something out with him."

            "Okay." Uric smiled at him, and Mr. Kurze was sure he had no idea what he had agreed to. He shook his head.

            "I'm not sure whether to pity you, or to pity my wife when she finally gets a hold of you. Now run off, before I'm forced to do something drastic." Uric turned and ran straight through a nearby door. Mr. Kurze shook his head again. He could have sworn that that particular door was just a wall pretending to be a door. He could be wrong though. He stared at the door, then walked over and opened it. A wall stood behind it. He shut the door and continued on his patrol.

*****

            "The Great Hunt, or Wild Hunt as it is sometimes known, happens every vernal equinox. The Hunter rides across the land with his black hounds, searching for those who have done evil. Once the hounds scent their prey they never let go…Uric!" Uric looked up from his paper model of something that resembled a bird, if a bird had three legs, one eye and what looked like a large ear growing out of its head. 

            "Yes, Sir?" he asked. 

            "Would you like to explain why you aren't paying attention yet again, or should I just give you another detention?" demanded Professor Stewart. Uric opened his mouth to respond then closed it again. He did mind explaining it and after the first fifteen times, even Uric had noticed that Professor Stewart gave him detention no matter what he said. 

            "Detention, Uric. Now." Stewart pointed at the door. Uric shrugged and walked out. A month of detention with Professor Stewart had taught him the routine. He was to run around the castle until Professor Stewart called him in. There was no stopping and since Defense Against the Dark Arts was his last class of the day, no complaints from the other teachers. 

            Uric didn't mind. It was easy for his mind to wander while he was running. About as easy as it was for his mind to wander while he was in class really. He could contemplate what the world would be like if everyone had heads made of cheese just as easily inside or out. It was on Louis' advice actually, that he had never told Professor Stewart that he enjoyed his detentions. 

            This time however, Professor Stewart followed him out into the hall.

            "Wait, Uric. Mr. Kurze has talked to me. He wants you to carry this." Professor Stewart held out a stone on a chain. He reluctantly looped it over Uric's head. "Just touch it whenever you see this woman you claim to have following you." Professor Stewart's tone made it very clear how little he believed Uric's claims. 

            "Thank you, Sir." Professor Stewart didn't bother to answer. He re-entered his classroom and Uric walked outside to begin his detention. He didn't see the woman that day, but it wouldn't have mattered if he did, since his thoughts were thoroughly occupied with the pros and cons of sentient clothing. 

*****

            "He got you again, Uric?" asked Louis, referring to Uric's twenty third detention with Professor Stewart. Uric nodded his head and went back to his book whose title was, as far as Louis could see _Good Housekeeping for Witches. Louis shook his head and decided not to ask. _

They were waiting for Mena to meet them at one of the tables in the library. The three of them met up like this sometimes, though if Louis ran into them elsewhere he would pretend he didn't know them. "Can't be seen consorting with the Hufflepuff's," he said one day, making Mena very angry for some reason. 

            Uric looked up from a fascinating chapter on dusting spells to see Mena storm into the library and slam her books down on the table. She ignored the evil looks the librarian was sending her way and slumped down into the chair.

            "Bad day?" asked Louis.

            "I am going to kill Alexis," she growled.

            "That's fine with me. Just try not to do it in the Slytherin Common Room. You might get blood on the chairs." Mena glared at him. 

            "I'm serious, Louis." He resisted the urge to tell her that he was serious as well. 

            "What did she do to you?" Louis asked instead. Mena hesitated. "Tell me and I might just consider helping you." 

            "She tripped me, than called me a dirty little mouse. She said maybe I should ask the house elves for help in cleaning my hair. All the Slytherins were laughing." She stared hard at the table, refusing to meet their eyes.

            "Of course they were laughing. They always follow her lead."

            "So do you!" She pointed her finger accusingly at him. Louis leant back and folded his arms across his chest.

            "Yes, I do. It would be dangerous to stand out. Alexis likes flattery and power. So long as I give it to her she leaves me alone." 

            "And it doesn't bother you that you have to grovel at her feet?" Louis stared at her curiously.

            "Are you sure you're not a Gryffindor?" he asked. Uric and Louis watched in surprise as Mena screwed up her face in an attempt not to cry.

            "You…" She didn't finish her sentence, but grabbed her bag and ran out of the room.

            "I think I touched a nerve," said Louis. Uric watched her go, puzzled, then went back to reading about dusting spells. Mena would probably hit him if he tried to talk to her now, and he really wanted to know how to remove wine stains with one easy spell. 

*****

            Uric wandered early into the Great Hall for breakfast as usual. He had been up since three and was now hungry enough to eat a hippogriff. Not that he would. That would be cannibalism…Actually Uric wondered why a hippogriff? If you were hungry enough to eat a hippogriff, did that mean you weren't hungry enough to eat a clabbert or a dragon? And he had never heard of anyone actually eating a hippogriff. How could they know they were hungry enough to eat one if they never had? For that matter, how did he know he was hungry enough? 

            Uric was so occupied in his thoughts that he didn't notice the girl until he bumped into her. She was taller than him by a few inches and had long pale blond hair. Alexis Lupin. His mind supplied him with her name. She was giving him a very cold stare. 

            "Sorry," he said, "Have you, by any chance, ever eaten a hippogriff?" 

            "You're that weird kid. Eric or something right?"

            "Uric Beaufolle." He bowed slightly to her. She looked at him, considering.

            "I'm going to give you a piece of advice, Uric. Stay out of my way," she said. And with that she walked past him and sat down at the Slytherin table. She was joined a few minutes later by her friends as everyone in the castle came down for breakfast, but Uric wasn't paying attention to her and was engrossed in the decimation of his baked beans. A hungry monster had attacked their village and was eating them one by one…

            "You should pay attention this morning, Uric." He looked up, fork poised. Mena was looking very cheerful compared to yesterday. 

            "Pardon?" he asked. Mena sighed and her smile slipped a little.

            "Just keep your eyes on the Slytherin table, instead of your food. Okay?" Uric nodded, quickly ate the rest of his food and stared with intense concentration at the Slytherin table. For awhile, nothing happened except for Louis and Alexis giving him some odd looks. Then, Uric blinked.

            Alexis' hair grew a life of its own. It began standing on end and flashing different colours. First a bright pink, than green, than blue. The hairs themselves wound in and out matting her hair so that it was shaped into a huge knot filled mess above her head. And it still continued to change colours…Alexis was crying, though Uric couldn't tell if it was fake or real, and her friends were trying desperately to help her. All the other students watched in silence.

The teachers had noticed what was going on and some had rushed to help their student. Professor Leonard was the first to reach her. He quickly stopped the spell, and returned her hair to normal, except for an occasional flash of pink. Uric turned to ask Mena about the whole incident, but was distracted by a voice that rose over the quiet babble.

"Uric Beaufolle did it, Professor. He must have hexed me when he bumped into me this morning. Athar saw it didn't you, Athar?" Uric didn't hear Athar's reply, but a few seconds later the Headmistress' voice cut through the din.

"Uric Beaufolle come up here right now!" Uric got up slowly and walked towards the Head Table. Professor Stewart was looking very happy for some reason, while Headmistress Kurze stared at him with eyes of steel. He turned away from her gaze for a moment and looked back at the Hufflepuff table. Mena had her head buried in her arms and was shaking slightly. He could see Eustace asking her what was wrong. He turned back to the Headmistress.

"You wanted me, Headmistress?" he asked in his usual slightly puzzled tone. 

"Report to my office, Uric. Professor Stewart will show you the way," she said. A hush filled the Great Hall as Uric left in the company of the Deputy Headmaster. Louis looked at Mena, than at the now smiling Alexis. He shook his head. 

"Poor bugger," he thought, and hoped Uric survived the day.

*****

Thank you to everyone who reviewed: Giesbrecht, Em, Kirkusmaximus12, Anne, Mad Potter, Morrighan, Spitgurl, Tess and Zadesko. If there's anyone out there who still wants to be emailed when I update please let me know. 

Em: Thank you for the constructive criticism. I apologize for the chapter not flowing as well, for some reason the middle chapters of this story are giving me a problem, while the beginning and ending chapters are a breeze to write. Most of this story will be from Uric's point of view, though I will every once and awhile switch to either Mena or Louis' point of view, because sometimes Uric just doesn't want to notice the things I want him to…

Anne: We could just ask Rowling to rewrite the books so everyone has snitch emblems…

Morrighan: I do mention that Uric is distantly related to Wendelin in my other Uric fic, but that's an AU from this one, so I don't know if it counts. I've always thought that Hufflepuff got the short end of the stick when it came to houses. I had to scour the books as it was to even come up with an idea of what makes a Hufflepuff a Hufflepuff. Oh well.

Spitgurl: Now I'm wondering who Mena reminds you of…Did this chapter help?

Tess: Uric's always struck me as being ADD if nothing else. He's probably got some other problems, but I think he's more fun to write than diagnose:) I'm glad you like the fic so much. Hopefully I'll have an update for the other Uric story up soon as well. 

Please let me know what you think. I want opinions here, good or bad. And does anyone have any ideas what that woman Uric keeps seeing is up to?

Next time: Mrs. Kurze's office and Halloween (didn't get around to them this chapter…)


	8. Problems and Punishments

Chapter 8: Problems and Punishments

Uric had to walk quickly to keep up with Professor Stewart. The professor's robes were practically billowing out behind him he was walking so fast. Uric attempted to not get a mouthful of cloth and nearly bumped into a statue of Stanley the Stalwart. They had gotten stuck on a staircase that decided to mysteriously change direction in midair and ended up in an abandoned corridor filled with bubbles. Professor Stewart had looked disgusted and cursed the staircase until it changed again. Then he had resumed his impossibly fast walk, with Uric following dutifully behind. Eventually they arrived at a stone gargoyle Uric remembered passing before.

            "Discipline," said Professor Stewart and the gargoyle swung aside to reveal a long staircase. Professor Stewart proceeded up the stairs, but was forced to come back and get Uric after he stopped to talk to the gargoyle. Uric wondered why the gargoyle wouldn't talk to him.

            "Uric! The Headmistress is already up there!" Professor Stewart grabbed his shoulder and nearly dragged Uric up the stairs. They entered a formal looking room. Dark mahogany panelling lined the walls interspaced with tapestries. A formal portrait of the Headmistress and her husband sat over a cold fire place. A deep carpet coated the floor, but added no warmth. 

            Mrs. Kurze sat in a tall chair behind a massive mahogany desk. It was very neat and had only a pile of parchment to one side of it, a quill and a pretty glass ball acting as a paper weight. Uric's first urge was to go up to the desk and look at the pretty ball. So he did. He had just enough time to see that it was shot through with strangely swirling silver before a hand grasped it and took it out of his field of vision. He looked up in time to see Headmistress Kurze putting the ball in a drawer. 

            "Mr. Beaufolle, would you please stand in front of the desk, not on it," she said in her clipped, angry tones. It was only then that Uric noticed he was on his knees leaning across the desk to look at the pretty ball. He got off the desk.

            "Sorry, Headmistress Kurze." She looked at him with her piercing grey eyes.

            "I don't think you are, Uric. Just like I don't think you are sorry for hexing poor Miss. Lupin. This school has a standard to uphold and you have failed us today." Uric frowned at her, trying not to feel uncomfortable under her stare.

            "But," he began and she cut him off. 

            "I'm sure your father would be very disappointed in you, Mr. Beaufolle. I'll bet you thought your little prank was funny, but it was very traumatizing for Miss. Lupin." Uric decided to try again.

            "But I didn't-" Mrs. Kurze's glare got even stronger, if that was possible.

            "Do not deny it, Mr. Beaufolle. Despite the reports I get of your negligence in class-" She paused to glance at Professor Stewart. "Your grades are the highest in nearly every class. I am assured that you are capable of the complicated hex that was performed on Miss. Lupin." Uric held very still. She had told him not to deny that he had done the prank, but he hadn't done the prank. He didn't know what he was supposed to do. The Headmistress seemed to take his silence for assent however and continued speaking.

            "Now, your parents will be informed of your behaviour. But in addition to that, fifty points off Hufflepuff and you will serve detention every day after class for the next month." 

            "Running?" said Uric hopefully. He already ran around the school most of the week anyway.

            "I think not. Dasha has expressed the need for an extra hand to help her with her work. You will report to her for details." She stopped talking and stared piercingly at him. Uric didn't want to look at her anymore, and focused his eyes on the bookcase behind her.

            "Look at me, Uric." Her voice was made of steel. Reluctantly, Uric met her eyes. "Something tells me that you are not sorry about your actions in the least. Are you sorry about what you did?" Uric thought for awhile.

            "What did I do, Ma'am?" It was Professor Stewart who answered him. The Headmistress was too angry to speak.

            "You hexed Miss. Lupin!" he exclaimed. Uric opened his mouth to respond, than closed it again. He was very confused. 

            "It is unfortunate that they have banned us from physically punishing the students, like our muggle counterparts these days. Perhaps your father will give you a good whipping when he finds out about this," said Mrs. Kurze. Uric, not understanding how lucky he was, opened his mouth to protest that his father had never whipped him, but was cut off by Professor Thacher entering the office. 

            The Head of Slytherin regarded them all as if he were surprised to see them there. 

            "Is there something you want Professor?" asked Mrs. Kurze, her voice cold. Thacher ignored her for a moment, than focused on Uric.

            "Ah! There he is! I was so close to having perfect attendance today, but then you didn't show up."

            "I'm sorry, Sir," said Uric politely.

            "You did see what Uric did in the Great Hall, Jeffery? And to one of your own students," said Mrs. Kurze.  

            "That was Uric? Strange…Still, I need him for in my first class. He's the only one who I can demonstrate the confundus charm on without worrying. So if you're finished with him?" He looked expectantly at the Headmistress. Uric turned to look as well and fancied he saw smoke coming out of her ears. Perhaps she had had too much pepper-up potion. They all watched her visibly calm herself before speaking.

            "You may take him Professor Thacher." She turned her attention to Uric once again. "Report to Dasha after classes Uric and rest assured, if I see you in here again for any other mischief, I will expel you, regardless of your father. Understand?" Uric started to shake his head no, but found his short braid held in the iron grip of Professor Thacher. The teacher had somehow managed to get awfully close while the Headmistress was talking. 

            "Of course he understands, Headmistress. Come along, Uric." He practically dragged Uric out of the room and down the stairs. They were half way to the Charms classroom when Professor Thacher spoke.

            "Aren't you going to thank me Uric?" he said.

            "Thank you, Sir?"

            "It's not often that I make such an effort for students of other houses. You should be thanking me for making an exception. Do you write letters home, Uric?" he asked. Uric thought back to the rather rambling letter he had been writing for the past month to his parents. It was only seven feet long now and he still hadn't gotten to telling them what the castle was like. Perhaps he shouldn't have put in that part about the rabid oranges…

            "Uric!"

            "Yes, Sir?"

            "I'm going to do something very un-Slytherin and spell this out for you, so listen carefully." Uric nodded. "When your father writes you wondering what happened, make sure he knows that I rescued you. Okay?" Uric didn't think that would be too hard. 

"Okay, Sir," he said. They arrived at the classroom door. 

"Remember, Uric!" Thacher said one more time, before entering the classroom. Once there, he proceeded to teach like normal, and he never did demonstrate the confundus charm. 

*****

            The kneazle bounded across the grass outside the hut, knocking Uric over when it attempted to perch on his shoulder. He grinned in delight and pet it as it curled up on top of him. Dasha strode out of her cottage after it. 

            "Get off him you overgrown hair ball!" She picked the kneazle up and tossed it lightly to her left. It contorted spectacularly in mid air before landing heavily on its feet. There was a small smile on Dasha's face when it walked away stiffly, its tail in the air. It faded away when she looked back at Uric. "You can get up now. Beckett only maims one person a day, and I seem to have gotten off lucky today." Uric got up, and brushed the grass off his robes. 

            "Headmistress Kurze said to report to you for my detention ma'am."

            "It's Dasha," she said. "Are you the kid I always see running around the castle?"

            "Yes, though sometimes I skip." Uric smiled at her. Dasha gave him a doubtful look.

            "I'm sure you do. I hope Mrs. Kurze knew what she was doing when she assigned you to me," she said, while staring off into the forest. She turned back and regarded Uric critically. Meanwhile, Uric removed on of his shoes and placed it in front of him. Dasha watched, curious about what he was doing. He stood on one foot and stared hard at the shoe. Dasha blinked. She could have sworn it hopped in place for a moment. Uric seemed satisfied, and put the shoe back on. 

            "If you're finished with your shoe, we'll be heading into the forest now. Keep your eyes open. Wizards have gone in there and never come out," she said with relish. Uric didn't seem to be affected by this comment, much to Dasha's disappointment. He was still smiling when they entered under the shadow of the trees.

*****

            "Welcome back to the land of the living, Uric!" said Louis with a smile when Uric walked into the library. "Tell me all the gruesome details." He was leaning against the table near where Mena was sitting. 

            "You don't have to say anything Uric," said Mena, her voice muffled from where it lay in her arms. It was one of her favourite positions when things weren't going well. Uric smiled at them both.

            "Well, I was thinking about brooms, and if they could mate with carpets. Because a carpet covered broom would be a lot more comfortable and-"

            "I meant what happened with Mrs. Kurze. Rumour says you got detention for a month," said Louis. Uric nodded in agreement.

            "Yes, and she took off points too. She was very confusing though and wouldn't let me explain." He sounded almost sad. "Then she got very angry and Professor Thacher came in and pulled on my braid." Mena's face was still hidden, but that didn't stop her from commenting.

"You were very brave to stand up to her," she said. Louis gave her an exasperated look, and turned to Uric.   

"You should have cried, Uric."

"Cried?" asked Uric, puzzled. 

"Yes. She's used to students crying when she punishes them. When you didn't cry, you made her angry. Now she thinks you were defying her," explained Louis.

            "I think it's scary how much you think about these things," said Mena. She had lifted her head from her arms and was now staring studiously at the row of books to their left. Uric turned to look there as well to see what she found so interesting. 

            "You obviously weren't thinking this morning," said Louis accusingly. She finally pulled her eyes away from the shelves, and stared at Louis angrily.

            "How was I supposed to know that she would blame Uric instead of me?" 

            "She knows he's your friend Mena, and it would have been too easy to blame it on you. This way she gets to have revenge on you by proxy, and she can still make your life miserable. I would brush up on your defence skills if I were you." Louis' voice was calm as usual, but the way he clenched the quill in his fist showed how annoyed he was. "You should at least apologize to Uric as well."

            "It's okay. Dasha's kneazle likes me," said Uric with a smile. Louis glanced at him.

            "That's very good, Uric, but I still think she owes you an apology."

            "I didn't bloody know!" Her voice caused the librarian to send a silencing charm their way, and they were forced to spend the next couple of minutes staring sullenly at each other. Well, except for Uric who was drawing what looked suspiciously like a four cornered triangle. The charm wore off rather abruptly, and Louis' sigh sounded very loud. 

            "This is ridiculous. Let's just make a pact. Any prank one of us pulls has to be approved by the other two of us. Okay?" he asked. A stubborn look lingered on Mena's face, but she nodded. Uric nodded as well, though it was doubtful he had been listening long enough to understand why. Louis decided to change the subject.

            "So what are you doing for detention? Still running around the castle?" Uric shook his head.

            "No. I went with Dasha into the Forbidden Forest."

            "What's Dasha doing in the Forbidden Forest?" asked Mena.

            "Research. I got to count the birdies."

            "How about the monsters?" asked Louis sarcastically.  

            "I didn't see any today. Maybe tomorrow?" said Uric. Louis just shook his head at Uric's obliviousness. 

            "Is the forest really as dangerous as everyone says it is?" asked Mena. Louis thought for a moment.

            "Yes. It's a breeding ground for some of the most dangerous creatures on the planet. Not to mention the trees themselves are supposed to be alive and watching. Oh, and the centaurs. They can be very nasty when they want to be. A couple of them fought in the goblin rebellions awhile back and were asked by the Council to never do so again."

            "Wizards have gone missing there too," chimed in Uric helpfully. "Dasha told me all about them." 

            "In her effort to comfort you upon entering the forest, no doubt," said Louis. 

            "You must be very brave to enter into the forest then, Uric." Mena's tone was wistful. Louis gave her a doubtful look.

            "He's got detention in there. No choice, remember? And since when did you get so hung up on bravery?" Mena gave him an annoyed look.

            "The Gryffindors are all very brave," she said indignantly. 

            "Yes, they are according to the Sorting Hat. But you aren't a Gryffindor, judging by that badger on your robes." Mena stood up and stared at him defiantly.

            "Well maybe I wish I was!" She looked like she was going to hit him then, but seemed to change her mind, and stormed out of the library instead. Louis got a contemplative look on his face.

            "You know, with all the time she spends storming out of this place. It's a wonder she found the time to do the research on that little hex this morning." He looked over at Uric to find him deep into transfiguring his ink blotter into a cactus. Louis sighed. "Sometimes I think I'd be better off talking to myself." He sat down and took out his Potions assignment. Mena would be back. After all, she had left her books. 

*****

Thank you to my reviewers for your encouragement: Anne, Gen Raid, Em, Zadesko, and Mad Potter. 

I think I'm going to have to give up saying what will happen in the next chapters, since every time I do, I somehow manage to write whole parts that aren't planned. This story is mutating. For instance, I was supposed to get around to Halloween in this chapter…

Please review and let me know what you think.


	9. Friendship

A/N: This chapter is a bit longer than usual, but I didn't think that anyone would complain…

Chapter 9: Friendship

            Uric was curled up on a couch in the Common Room, reading _The Book Of Wild Magic. He would have been out wandering as usual, but both Eustace and Louis had advised him to stay in the Common Room, at least until Headmistress Kurze stopped assigning random detentions to any hapless student who crossed her path. Terry Haribon was still said to be copying every word with double letters in it out of Hogwarts: A History for lingering in the halls. It was common knowledge that it was Uric who had annoyed her, though very few people actually understood why. Uric didn't really know himself, but he was willing to go along with Eustace's and Louis' suggestion, at least for a little while. After all, the badgers wouldn't wait forever. _

            He was thoroughly engrossed in the chapter on selkie's when he noticed a weight on his feet. Looking up, he saw Mena sitting next to him on the small couch, her robes lying haphazardly over his feet. 

            "They like that you know," he said. Mena jumped. She had been staring at her feet, but now she turned to look at Uric. 

            "They?"

            "My feet. They like being covered. That's why I wear socks. Can you imagine what they would do if they were uncovered?" he asked. Mena started to answer, but then thought better of it. 

            "Uric." Her eyes, once again, went back to her feet, and Uric looked there as well. Did she know something he didn't? "I'm sorry I got you in trouble," she said in a low voice. "And I'm not apologizing just because Louis told me too." 

            "Okay," he said. She looked at him.

            "You really don't care, do you?" she asked. Uric thought about it.

            "But you're sorry. So everything is okay." She was staring at her feet again. "Want to come exploring with me?" he asked her eagerly, forgetting his friend's advice.  She shook her head.

            "We can't. If we lose any more points for Hufflepuff, we'll never have a chance of winning the house cup." Uric's face fell. 

"Later then?" he asked. Mena looked at him, realizing he truly didn't mind about the prank. Uric could be very annoying at times, but she was very glad she had defended him on the coach over a month ago.

            "Mrs. Kurze has to calm down at some point. We'll go exploring then. Okay?"

            "Okay." Uric nodded happily and went back to his book. Mena sat there for a moment, expecting him to say something more, than went to get ready for the day.

*****

 _Dear Uric,_

_            Your father would like an explanation for the letter we received earlier today about your behaviour. He was too busy to read it, but I was able to summarize it for him, while leaving out the worst of Headmistress Kurze's insinuations. Honestly, I have half a mind to come there and give that woman a good scolding of her own. Suggesting that you hexed that girl, than attempted to lie to her about it. I know I raised you right Uric and I know you don't lie, much to our chagrin sometimes. But your father has asked for a full report, so please send one back soon. _

_Are you eating well there? Drusilla tells me you are fed quite well, but her son Bryton was chubby long before he went there. Your father is very busy with his council work, but I'm sure he would be interested in knowing how your studies are going. Meanwhile, I have been decorating the house for Hallowe'en with the house elves help, but I'm afraid it just won't be the same without you. You must tell me all about your first Hallowe'en at school. Try writing more often sweetheart. _

_With Love,_

_Mum_

_ps Uric, this is your father. Try to stay out of more trouble for the sake of the family. –Alastair Beaufolle_

            Louis read over the letter one more time, than handed it back to Uric. 

            "You sure we can't trade parents, Uric? Mine would have crucified me by now," he said. Uric looked up from where he was writing the letter back to his parents. 

            "I don't think we can do that. It would mean us having to be born over again, and your parents don't look anything like mine, so-" Louis cut him off. 

            "It was only a suggestion. Never mind." He watched Uric write the letter for awhile, than turned his attention to where Mena was asleep over her herbology text. "Are you going home for Christmas, Uric?"

            "Yes. Mum would never let me stay here."

            "How about Mena?" asked Louis. He watched Uric write the word 'cockatrice' before answering him.

            "I don't know. What do muggle's do on Christmas?" 

            "Probably the same things we do, only without magic," said Louis hesitantly. He really didn't know much about muggle customs. 

            "Or maybe, they become magical for just one night, and everyone starts dancing on the table tops and performing amateur dramatics." Uric sounded very happy about the whole idea, though Louis was at a loss to explain what being magical and dancing on table tops had in common. 

            "Maybe that's what alcohol is for?" he suggested with a shrug. 

            "I'll ask my father when I go home. He'll know," said Uric with the certainty of someone whose father had always had an answer. Meanwhile, Louis stared at Mena, debating whether or not to wake her. He finally reached over and prodded her gently with his wand. She didn't even move, so he swished it hard against her hand, quickly hiding it when she awoke and started glaring at them. She looked between them, unable to tell by Louis' calm expression and Uric's, well Uric's usual expression, which of them had awakened her. 

            "I didn't get much sleep last night." Her tone was dangerous, but Louis decided to ignore it. 

            "You should go to sleep early tonight, but first I have a question for you," he said. Mena rested her head on her folded arms and stared at him. 

            "Do you?" she asked in the same tone as before. Louis nodded his head, and found himself leaning in towards her as he spoke. 

            "Are you staying over the holiday?" he asked. Mena blinked.

            "That's it?" Louis rolled his eyes.

            "Yes. Will you just answer already!" he commanded. She frowned at him.

            "I'm staying here. Father's gone to France on guild business so there'd be no one at home for me," she explained. Louis sat back in the chair again. She was watching him suspiciously. "Why did you want to know?" Louis didn't really want to answer, but knew that Mena wouldn't be satisfied until he did.

            "I'm staying here as well. Practically no one from Slytherin does however, not that I'm friends with many of them…I just wanted to make sure there would be someone here I know," he said, trying not to look at Mena. 

            "You can always go to the badgers," said Uric in a casual tone, never looking up from his letter.

            "The badgers?" asked Louis, knowing he was going to regret this. 

            "Yes. They're very friendly if you know how to approach them." 

            "I thought you hadn't found them, Uric?" asked Mena.

            "Oh no, well, you can only find them when you really need them, not when you really want them, if you know what I mean," he said. Louis and Mena exchanged looks. They doubted that there was anyone who ever knew what Uric _really_ meant.

            "If you say so Uric," said Louis doubtfully. Uric nodded his head.

            "I do. But don't you worry. If you ever need the badgers they'll find you." He smiled happily at them. Louis found himself smiling back. For some reason he felt a lot better.

*****

            Hallowe'en had always been one of Uric's favourite times of year. He would help his mother decorate the castle, and she would tell him the ancient tales of the land, even muggle stories sometimes. And then on Hallowe'en night, father would come home and they would have a party. Sometimes it was just him and his parents, other times it seemed the whole wizarding world was invited. 

This year he spent Hallowe'en admiring Hogwart's rather spartan decorations and enjoying the wonderful feast. The Fat Friar even told them a ghost story while they were eating and Mrs. Kurze seemed to have calmed down enough so that she wasn't taking points off of everyone in her line of sight. After the feast there were games in the common room along with liberal amounts of some strangely flavoured drink that the older students seemed to enjoy. No one went to sleep early that night, though that didn't stop Uric from awakening at his usual time. 

He woke up and bounced lightly to his feet on top of the mattress. Experimentally, he tried to perform a standing back flip and ended up in an untidy pile on the floor. He froze, wondering if his dorm mates were going to wake up, but lucky for him, or maybe for them, they were all heavy sleepers. 

            He pulled himself off the floor, gave a bow to the bed for its help and quickly pulled on his robes before heading out the door. Instead of leaving like he usually did, he made his way across the common room. He was distracted by the badgers in the painting on the wall and would have spent the whole night staring at them except he noticed his robes were beginning to flower so he moved on. Much as he would like to test his theory of plant based life forms, tonight wasn't the night. 

            The doorway he wanted was up a ladder at the far side of the room. He crept up quietly and entered into a slightly different world than he had ever been in. Hufflepuff's colours may have been black and yellow but in this room, a rainbow seemed to have splashed down. Each bed had its own bright colour dominating it, while pictures of prancing unicorns and frolicking fairies decorated the walls. Uric took a step towards a bright red bed and wondered if touching it would turn him red. He touched it, thinking that spending his life impersonating a tomato might be fun, and was disappointed to find his hands were the same colour as always. 

            With a sigh, he poked at the blanket and its occupant underneath. A hand flailed out and slapped his arm, making him jerk back and fall to the floor. He waited for her to wake up but nothing happened, so he got up and this time, poked her with his wand. The blanket slowly turned green and Mena sat up quite suddenly. Uric took a step back as she looked around in confusion. Her eyes focused on him and he grinned. 

            "Good morning Mena. Want to go exploring now?" She glared at him, than took the time to look at the magical clock on the wall. She groaned. 

            "We didn't go to sleep after the feast until midnight, Uric and its only four now. Couldn't you have waited a bit longer?" Her voice was still full of sleep. She rubbed her eyes and focused on him again. 

            "What are you doing in the girl's dorm?" Her voice was much clearer now and very angry. Uric smiled pleasantly at her.

            "Waking you," he said. She growled at him, and Uric was about to ask her how she did that, since she sounded remarkably like a mother badger, when the pillow smacked full force into his body and sent him flying several feet away to land near the doorway. 

            "Out," she said. Uric got up and looked at her sadly.

            "You're not coming exploring then?" he asked. She summoned her pillow back, though it looked more like she wanted to curse it to pieces instead. 

            "I'm coming. Just wait outside." She was growling again, but Uric decided to go listen to the badgers and see if they really sounded similar. Mena came down soon and was nearly hit by a plant that was flying lazily about the room. 

            "You have to duck," said Uric helpfully. Mena just marched over to him and pulled him out the portrait door by his sleeve. She stopped in the middle of the corridor. Uric stopped as well. He stood their patiently and imagined what would happen if all the corridors of Hogwarts were actually rivers. All the students would have to boat from class to class and the doors would have to be magically charmed to keep the water out. Simon wouldn't like the water, though doing potions while floating on top of your chair might be interesting…Mena ground her foot on top of his own and he winced slightly from the pain.

            "Now that I have your attention. I thought we were exploring, not staring at the floor all night," she said. Uric shrugged and set off down one of the corridors, following the green zig-zag pattern on one of the carpets. He would have been perfectly happy staring at the carpet all night, but Mena was with him, so maybe he could show her around. Where had he last seen that room made entirely of cheese last?

*****

            They didn't find the cheese room, but they did find the room full of useless things (a lot of muggle stuff according to Mena), the room of leaf piles (fun to play in until one of the piles tried to eat them) and a room full of mirrors, which he hadn't seen before. One of the mirrors kept showing him playing with badgers for some reason and Uric wondered if it was the Mirror of Badgers, but Mena wouldn't tell him what she saw so he couldn't check. 

Many hours later, Uric led her towards a certain room on the second floor where a ghostly orchestra was always playing. Before they could reach it however, he heard a noise. Acting quickly, Uric pulled her behind a nearby suit of armour. She glared at him and opened her mouth to speak. He frantically signed for her to be quiet and they both stood behind the armour. Mena froze when the sound of soft footsteps came to their ears.

            The footsteps came closer and peering through the arms of the suit, they could see a large pair of dark blue trousers come trotting into view. It came fast around the corner, skipping and twirling like there was actually someone in it, though they could only see air. The trousers performed some sort of sliding step dance than disappeared around a bend in the corridor. Only then did they relax.

            "What was that?" asked Mena, confused as to why a pair of trousers would be so threatening.

            "Those are the Dancing Trousers." Uric almost looked serious. "Once you put them on, you can never get them off. Well, not never. There are some ways, but it takes an awful lot of effort and it's no fun to be dancing forever." 

            "Have they ever caught you?" she asked. 

            "Oh yes. Plenty of times. But I didn't feel like dancing tonight and they don't like most people." 

            "Which explains why they like you," said Mena sourly. She took a deep breath. "Alright. Where to now?" She yawned as she said it. 

            "This way." Uric went in the opposite direction the Dancing Trousers had taken. He rounded the corridor and ran straight into Varys Nachleen. The dark-haired boy gave him an annoyed look, than straightened his robes, taking extra time to flick lint off of his Ravenclaw badge. 

            "Of all the people I could have run into," he said with disgust. Uric looked curiously at him, while Mena spoke up behind him.

            "You'd rather have run into Mrs. Kurze?" she asked. He pretended not to hear her and focused on Uric.

            "I think I'll report you to Mr. Kurze," he said. 

            "Okay," said Uric at the same time as Mena spoke up again.

            "You can't, because then you'll have to explain why you're out here as well." She sounded triumphant. This time he glared at her, though she just glared right back. Uric looked from one to the other and wondered if you could bottle stares. He opened his mouth to ask, but Varys broke the stare and assumed a dignified pose. 

            "Much as I would like to stay here playing. I have better things to do." He gave them a slight bow, as years of social training came to the fore. Uric returned the bow for the same reasons. Mena watched them, a quizzical expression on her face, and didn't even notice when Varys brushed past her.

            "For mortal enemies you two are rather polite," she said. 

            "Mortal enemies?" said Uric in a puzzled tone. 

            "He doesn't like you Uric, or hadn't you noticed?" Uric looked at her. 

            "Mum always said to be polite, even if he doesn't like Simon," he said. Mena shook her head.

            "The point is that he doesn't like _you," she explained. Uric thought about that. He seemed to remember something about Varys not liking him, but he couldn't be sure it was true. He could also remember a giant hamster ice-skating across the Great Hall, which was just as likely, maybe even more so, of being true. He was knocked out of his thoughts by a shout from down the way they had come. _

            "The Dancing Trousers!" said Mena, her face filled with glee. 

            "Did you want to try them? I'm sure we can find them again," Uric said. She growled again.

            "No. I think Varys is trying them out already." Mena snickered. "I wonder what he looks like doing a country dance. He probably thinks it's beneath him." 

            "The trousers are beneath him actually," said Uric, trying to understand why she was so happy. At that moment, the Dancing Trousers rounded the corner with Varys wearing them. Mena doubled over with laughter. Varys was doing a passing imitation of an Irish step dancer, and the reason he wasn't yelling anymore was because he was breathing too heavily from the exercise. The boy seemed to be concentrating on getting out of the trousers, but when he saw Uric his eyes filled with anger. 

            "You," he panted out between breaths, "are going to pay for this." He would have said more, but the trousers switched to taking great leaps and spinning him about on his toes. Uric could have sworn he heard a muffled thump and saw a shoe on the floor for a moment. Mena didn't seem to notice, and continued snickering until the trousers had passed out of sight. Uric looked confused.

            "He doesn't like Irish step dancing?" he asked. Mena just shook her head, still shaking with silent laughter. She looked back at the direction in which Varys had gone after the laughter had subsided.

            "I suppose we should tell Mr. Kurze about him," she said reluctantly. "But we might be punished." She looked at him where he was drawing a duck on the wall with his wand. "Maybe we'll just send him an anonymous note." She headed off towards the owlery and Uric followed.

            "Did you see that shoe?" Uric asked. Mena just ignored him.  

*****

Thank you to all my reviewers: Kath, AniMourner, Tidmag and Genraid, Tess, Hinkypunk, Mad Potter, Ozma, Teluekh, Amberdulen, Psycho Cowgirl and Thistlemeg. 

Tidmag and Genraid: That question about the curses used on the staircase makes me wonder whether the unforgivables were unforgivable in 1680, though I'm sure Professor Stewart wouldn't have used them anyway. He is an upstanding citizen for all his hatred of Uric. The pretty glass ball is actually an oblique reference to another pretty glass ball (shot through with gold this time) in a LOTR story I am writing with a friend. In Uric's universe all it is, is a pretty paper weight, though when you pick it up the silver does start to swirl through the ball, not that Uric will ever get that close…The strange lady, as you may have noticed, is back in this chapter, or at least part of her is. I'm considering letting Uric really see her next chapter.

Ozma: Thank you so much! I don't know if you've ever seen the show Blackadder, but allow me to recommend it. Blackadder is one of the grouchiest and meanest characters you will ever encounter:)

Amberdulen: Okay, I've polled my friends and no one knows…Who is Jack Handy? 

The Dancing Trousers were inspired by Wallace and Grommit's brilliant episode entitled "The Wrong Trousers". 

Please review everyone:) Feel free to ask me some questions. I love to explain even the smallest things. Cheers.


	10. Earth, Fog and Ashes

Chapter 10: Dust, Fog and Ashes

            "You need to pay careful attention here. We're entering one of the most dangerous parts of the forest. Uric!" Uric looked at Dasha from where he had been watching an orange, spike covered caterpillar rapidly devour a frog. 

            "Is there pudding here then?" he asked. Dasha blinked. A month of detentions with Uric and she still wasn't used to the boy. 

            "There are worse things in the world than pudding. For instance, this part of the forest happens to host a herd of graphorns that were transplanted here many years ago. We need to count them and make sure their numbers aren't too high. The muggles around here might object to angry graphorns running through their fields." Uric perked up.

            "Muggles?"

            "There is a muggle settlement on this side of the forest." She was staring in that direction. "There seems to be a lot more muggles around these days. Some day soon, we wizards will just be a memory and we'll be hiding ourselves from them, and from each other," she said in a melancholy tone. Uric looked worried.

            "What about muggle-borns? They'll still come right?" he asked. He was thinking about Mena.

            "That depends on the Council now doesn't it? Come on, we need to be out of the forest before sunset." She headed off at an angle and Uric followed slowly. He was thinking about leaves and wondering if they recognized each other when they were falling, and did they find different colours more attractive than others? Perhaps they had a fashion ball deep within the forest. He knelt down to pick up a brilliant yellow leaf and heard the screaming. He straightened up and stared quizzically ahead of him. 

"Stay here, Uric!" Dasha disappeared into the forest ahead of them. Uric was nearly knocked over by her kneazle, Beckett, when he followed her in an orange blur. Uric stared curiously in the direction they went. 

He could hear a strange lowing in the distance and more cries. The ground began to shake and small twigs and leaves came down in a strange shower. A loud groan came, reminding Uric of a banshee with a head cold. Something large and grey barrelled its way in to Uric's view. It had thick skin that was scaled like a dragon's and two sharp horns on the end of its nose that it was using to uproot a tree in front of him. More twigs fell down and Uric was forced to move as the tree crashed towards him. 

He rolled, and a branch ripped through his robes, cutting a small gash in his arm. The tree hit with a deafening crunch and Uric found himself crouched in between two large branches, surrounded by a flurry of red and yellow leaves. The graphorn had stopped at the foot of the now dead tree. Its beady, black eyes met his hazel ones and they stood for a moment, as if frozen in time. Shaking its head, the graphorn gave a snort and trotted back into the forest. 

            Uric stood up, inspected the bloody rip in his robes and frowned. He looked around at the leaves and back at the blood on his robes. The leaves were definitely attracted to the colour red. He wanted to move, to get away from the leaves (who were beginning to worry him) and to find Dasha, but she had told him to stay where he was. He thought about his dilemma for a moment, then realized he had already disobeyed her by moving out of the way of the tree, so it must be okay for him to move now. Right? He started walking in the direction he thought she had disappeared.

*****

            Uric couldn't hear screams anymore, and the forest was growing very dark in the deepening twilight. He headed towards where there was still light and soon found himself amongst thinning trees. The sounds of the forest died away, and he was walking on deep rows of dirt. They ran parallel to each other across the gentle slope right up to the edge of the forest. Uric regarded them in delight and without a thought, kicked off his shoes and socks. He ran barefoot over the soft, cool dirt, forgetting about the sting in his arm and everything else except the fresh, new smell of the field of earth. 

            He laughed and hoped over the rows, or left strange patterns in the dirt that his toes insisted he draw. Eventually the light faded so he could barely see, and Uric began to wonder how a field of dirt came to be near the Forbidden Forest. Was it a muggle field and if it was, why were they growing dirt? It occurred to him, that if they were growing dirt, he really shouldn't be disturbing it, so he made his way towards his shoes and socks.

            "Uric! Get down!" yelled a voice out of nowhere. Uric frowned and felt a body slam into him, pushing his face into the dirt. He sputtered, and turned over to see a white light cross over his face. There were men in black cloaks with their hoods pulled up over strange brightly coloured masks, shaped like dragons and demons standing at the other edge of the field. Something settled over him, and he found himself trapped under a cloth with a very familiar woman. He could hear voices yelling out spells in the distance. 

            "Hello," he said cheerfully. She gave him a withering look.

            "Did you see those men out there Uric?" she asked.

            "Yes. They're playing dress up."

            "That's so no one recognizes them."

            "Why?" asked Uric, as another spell whizzed over them. The woman shook her head and shifted so that the smell of the dirt was overwhelming. 

            "I'd love to explain it to you, but we really don't have the time. They saw my invisibility cloak, and they're going to start searching the field systematically, which means that we need to move. This way." She grabbed his arm and forced him to crawl along with her. They headed off at an angle and Uric frowned as he crawled.

            "What about my shoes and socks? They didn't do anything wrong," he said. She continued to drag him along.

            "Believe it or not Uric, you're life is more important than your footwear." The earth began to tremble underneath them and the woman's eyes widened in fear. "Move!" she shouted as she pushed Uric to the right, while rolling to the left. The ground where they had been exploded in a shower of dirt. Uric shut his eyes tight until it was over, than looked for the woman. She was nowhere to be seen. Uric sat up and looked again, ignoring the curses that were flying around him. It was getting dark, but the moon was bright enough to provide some light. 

            "There he is!" yelled a voice. Uric frowned and crawled towards the last place he had seen the woman. One of the dirt hills was being crushed by something that he hoped was her. He reached the depression and poked the air above it. His finger met resistance and he grinned. His hand found the material of the cloak and pulled some of it off her. 

Uric frowned. Her eyes were closed. He pulled out his wand and looked from her to the men in the masks. The one with a red dragon's head was getting awfully close and he was forced to duck as a yellowish coloured curse came his way. He looked longingly at his shoes off to his right, than made his decision. He rolled under the invisibility cloak and pointed his wand at the woman.

"Enervate," he said, pleased that he could remember a spell that he had seen his father use once many years ago. Her eyes fluttered, than opened. She looked straight at him and he smiled. "Hello," he said. She groaned.

"What are you still doing here Uric? You should have taken the cloak and left. They don't want me." Uric was confused. How was he supposed to know that? The woman twisted around to see the forest's edge only a few meters away. "Here is what we do. You take the invisibility cloak and run. Don't stop until you reach Hogwarts. I'll hold them off here. Do you understand me, Uric?" He nodded. "Alright," she said, though she looked doubtful. "You better go now." He looked around and saw that the man in the dragon mask was only three feet away. He wanted to ask the woman whether or not the dragon mask could breathe fire, but she rolled away from him and out from under the invisibility cloak. 

            The dragon-masked man froze, than pointed his wand at her. "Stupefy!" he called. She rolled out of the way of the spell and used her own wand.

            "Expelliarmus!" she yelled. The wizard made a sweeping gesture with his wand.

            "Claudiarmus!" The dragon's lips actually moved when he said the spell. The woman's spell hit an invisible shield and the dragon appeared to growl. "You shouldn't get in the way," he said. "He won't be harmed if his-" 

            "Quassicorpus!" shouted the woman. The man didn't dodge this time and began to shake violently making it impossible for him to aim or use his wand. His fellows had joined him at this point. One was wearing a black demon's mask, while the other wore a golden hippogriff. The woman attempted to curse them as well, but was repelled by some sort of shield. 

Uric stared at the pretty masks, whose faces were bared in nasty grimaces, completely forgetting the woman's instructions. The wizard with the demon mask ended the spell on his fellow, while the golden hippogriff gnashed his beak at the woman. 

"Petrificus totalus," he said in unison with the demon wizard. They each aimed for a different side of her, so that no matter where she dodged they had her. The woman fell down with a muffled thump and the wizards ignored her.

"He's gotten away," said the demon masked one in a deep voice. The golden griffin just shook his head.

"No. She had an invisibility cloak. She must have given it to him. We just have to find him before he gets back to Hogwarts." He pointed his wand at the ground in front of him. "Imburadventus," he said and a strange mist began to billow out of his wand forming into a line in front of him. "We'll smoke him out." Uric frowned at the line of mist that was creeping towards him. It was sending up puffs of dirt in front of it. He felt sorry for the little men who lived in the dirt, and did not want to share their fate, so he ran. 

The line of fog began to sweep faster and it was only a few feet behind him when he reached the forest's edge. Uric winced as his bare feet were prodded by the various twigs and leaves that littered the ground. His feet were not going to be happy. 

            The forest was quiet, and he could hear strange echoes from the creatures within it and the men following him. One of the wizards shouted and Uric stopped to look. The cloud was rolling across the ground. It covered anything it touched and was creeping up the trees behind him. Soon everything behind him was a foggy ghost of itself. The temperature began to drop as it drew closer and Uric shivered. A bird flew over the cloud and attempted to land on a fog covered branch. It cried out once as it was engulfed, and then its body lost its hold on the branch and plunged towards the ground. Uric began running again. 

            He ran for a long time, the mist always behind him. He came out into a clearing of trees and remembered to duck just in time. A branch swept through the area where his head had been. Uric took a step back, ignoring the approaching fog and bowed low to the ground. A magnificent oak tree stood at the edge of a dense crowd of smaller trees. Their leaves glowed golden in the faint moonlight. Uric crawled across the ground to a nearby pool of water and cupped some in his hands. Bringing the water over to the oak, he carefully poured it onto the tree's roots.

            "I'm sorry Mr. Oak, but I need to pass you and your friends." The tree did not respond, but Uric knew it could see and hear him. "You're leaves are very pretty by the way." There was a pause, than the sound of a thousand creaking's, and the branches of the oak moved out of the way. A passageway formed between the big oak and the smaller trees leading off towards Hogwarts. Uric grinning and bowed to them all.

            "Thank you. I'll come back some time and bring you water." He cast a worried glance at the fog. "I don't think the fog will hurt you." He passed under the branches of the trees and wondered if they could make other shapes, like stars and spirals. He nearly stopped and asked them to try before remembering the fog. 

Soon he was out from under the trees and running as fast as he could. Uric did what he usually did while running and drifted off into his own world, which is why he was surprised to find himself coming out of the forest and into the shadow of Hogwarts. He stopped running abruptly and pulled back the cloak's hood. There was something he was forgetting. 

He reached inside his robe and touched the stone that was hanging around his neck. After a moment he began to giggle. It felt like someone was tickling him. His robes began to extend out in front of him and he giggled more when he felt two hands place themselves on either side of his chest. Soon, Mr. Kurze had tumbled out of the now smoking stone and was standing in front of Uric, the invisibility cloak tangled around him. Mr. Kurze looked down at the cloak.

"What is this Uric?"

"It's an invisibility cloak, Sir. Where did you come from? Have you been living in the stone?" Uric asked. Mr. Kurze shook his head. 

"That's just absurd. Did you see the woman, or did you hit the stone accidentally?" he asked.

"I saw her. She even spoke to me," said Uric.

"Where?" Uric turned and pointed towards the forest. Did he see a dragon grin at him from there? Suddenly, Beckett bounded out of the forest followed by his owner. Dasha strode towards them, her long braid swinging back and forth behind her. She looked very grim.

"Where have you been Uric? Do you have any idea how long I've been looking for you?" she demanded. He ventured a guess.

"Since I disappeared?" Dasha looked very angry, but Mr. Kurze put his hand on her shoulder.

"Not now, Dasha," he said. "I need to know more about the woman while he's still slightly focused." She did not seem very placated.

"Uric is still in detention with me and is in my care. I have every right to demand where he has disappeared to for the last half hour." They both stared at each other and seemed to come to some sort of decision. They turned to Uric.

"Tell us what happened Uric," said Mr. Kurze.

"After I left you in the forest." Dasha knew she would have to clarify if they wanted a straight answer from the child. Mr. Kurze looked sharply at Dasha. 

"You left him alone in the forest?" 

"There was a herd of graphorns bothering some muggles. I didn't want him getting in my way, or theirs," she sounded defensive.

"I saw a graphorn," said Uric helpfully. He proceeded to tell them a disjointed tale of his adventures and didn't notice their alternating looks of disbelief and bemusement. He finished his tale and began to tell them about his new theory on pumpkin juice being the key to eternal life when Mr. Kurze held up a hand to stop him.

"So you were attacked by some unknown wizards and rescued by another unknown wizard for some unknown reason?" he asked. Uric nodded his head yes. "And this invisibility cloak belongs to this unknown woman?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Do you mind if I keep this, Uric?" Mr. Kurze asked. 

"No, Sir." Mr. Kurze nodded his head.

"Alright then." He looked questioningly at Dasha. "Is there anything you want to say, Dasha?" She looked hard at Uric, than shook her head.

"Nothing that can't wait until tomorrow. You should go get that cut looked at Uric." She turned to Mr. Kurze. "What are you going to do now, Olman?" Mr. Kurze looked up at the half moon. 

"I'll have to tell the Headmistress about this, though with him involved," he gestured at Uric, "I doubt she will be very understanding." His eyes fell on Uric. The boy was drawing in the dirt with his wand. "What are you doing boy?" Uric looked up and Mr. Kurze saw that the boy was about to launch into one of his long and convoluted explanations. "Get up to the castle. Now!" Uric's mouth closed and he wandered slowly towards the castle, zig-zagging slightly as if in deep thought. Mr. Kurze shook his head and something caught his eye. He bent down and picked up the burnt out stone that had hung around Uric's neck. It crumbled to ash in his hand. The wind blew across his hand and scattered the ashes into the forest.

*****

Cladiarmus basically means "to block + arms/weapons" while quassicorpus means "to shake violently + body", and imburadventus means "heavy rain + come". 


	11. Going Down

Chapter 11: Going Down

            Uric watched the bird carefully. It had a drab, brown body, but its wings were edged in a brilliant green. Every time it flapped its wings, the sun caught on the green feathers and burned a glowing 'v' onto his retina. Uric flipped over on his broom and watched the bird flap a few more times. The upside down 'v's reminded him of a row of mountains on a map, or perhaps a forest. He craned his neck to view the Forbidden Forest far below and in front of him. It looked as dark and mysterious as it usually did.

            He hadn't seen the woman since that night, nor had he seen the masked wizards. Dasha hadn't allowed him back in the forest again, not even to water Mr. Oak and his friends. He had served out his last two detentions in or around her cottage. The fog had disappeared, as had all signs of the masked wizards themselves. Dasha had returned his shoes and socks the next day all the while muttering about muggles and ploughing. Uric wondered if ploughing had to do with growing dirt. Perhaps he should write his parents again and ask. 

            "What are you doing?" said a voice. The bird soared away from him and Uric looked further up. Mena was hovering above him on her own broom. The edge of her robes were just brushing the top of his broomstick. 

            "Watching the birdy," he answered, though he noticed it was flying further and further away. 

            "You just had to watch it upside down, didn't you?" she asked. Mena didn't sound as annoyed as usual, but she loved to fly and it would take more than Uric's usual antics to put her in a bad mood. "Madame Bocce has been calling for you for the past ten minutes. You better get down there before she remembers to take away points." Madame Bocce was the youngest of the Hogwart's teachers. She tended to forget that she was a professor now, not a student, much less that she could take or give away points. 

            Uric nodded his head at Mena, than told his broom to go down. It dropped like someone had cut the strings holding it up and Mena screamed. Uric frowned from his upside down place on the broom. His body felt strange, like his stomach had been left somewhere up above. He decided he would be more comfortable falling while he was right side up and tried to roll over. The broom continued to fall, but now it was spinning him around like a corkscrew. 

            He could hear Mena and the others yelling, while far away the bird shrieked. The sensations in his stomach increased and Uric screwed up his face in concentration. He wanted to stop. 

            "Ugh," said a voice above him. The sensations stopped. Uric opened his eyes and saw that he was hovering less than a foot above the ground. Someone shoved him roughly off the broom. He sprawled on the ground and saw Mena sitting on her own broom, one hand still on the handle of his now empty broom. 

            "Don't you ever do that again!" she yelled at him, pushing her hair angrily out of her face. She took a few breathes, ignoring the others approaching on their brooms or on foot. "Flying takes concentration, Uric. You can't just tell the broom what to do and expect it to do it without your help," she said in a slightly calmer tone. The rest of the class caught up with them.

            "That was some fantastic flying, Mena," said Jasper. The rest of the class voiced their agreement though the Slytherins were markedly silent. Mena looked pleased at the compliments and forgot to continue yelling at Uric. Louis flew over to Uric unnoticed and helped him to his feet.

            "You do a nice impersonation of a rock. Good thing Mena decided to catch you _before she yelled at you," he said, and he would have continued, but Madame Bocce hurried over. Louis broke away, and quickly rejoined the rest of the class._

            "Are you alright, Uric?" said Madame Bocce anxiously. Her curly black hair stood up in a halo around her head, framing the distressed look on her face. Uric took a moment to examine himself. He bent over and stared at his feet.

            "Are you alright?" he asked his toes in a loud voice. A few of the class began snickering, but Uric was listening to his toes, not them. He looked back up at Madame Bocce and smiled.

            "They say they're alright and I am as well." She was staring at him.

            "That's…good Uric." She took an involuntary step backward, than seemed to come to herself. "Mrs. Kurze has summoned you to her office. You're to go immediately." Uric nodded. A cloud passed quickly over the sun. Uric gazed up at the sky for a moment, than over at the castle. He seemed to come to a decision and turned around so that his back was facing towards Hogwarts. With a practiced ease, he walked backwards towards Hogwarts, not even noticing when the entire flying class fell silent to watch him go. 

*****

            Headmistress Kurze's office was right where Uric thought he had left it. He walked up to the gargoyle and started petting and talking to it. After a few minutes, the gargoyle moved aside and Uric looked up to see the Headmistress standing on the bottom step of a staircase looking disapprovingly down upon him.

            "The gargoyle, Mr. Beaufolle, is not named Snuggly or any other name you would care to give him. It has been nearly half an hour since I sent for you, and I suspect you have spent the majority of that time chatting with this statue." She gestured disdainfully at the gargoyle and Uric frowned. Poor Snuggly. 

            "Professor Stewart talked to Snuggly and the door opened," he said, doing his best to explain himself. He kept his eyes firmly on the floor however, since she was glaring at him again. When she spoke, it was with a controlled fury.

            "If you had read the notice in the entrance hall like you were told to at the beginning of the year, you would have known that taping three times on Sn-" Her glare increased in intensity if that was possible. "the gargoyle with your wand and saying your name, would have informed me of your presence, allowing me to let you in." Uric continued to stare at the bare stones beneath his feet, his mind working furiously. The stones in this corridor were made up of hexagons, while the ones in the corridor outside the potion's dungeon were made up of rectangles. Hexagon's and squares formed a pattern at the top of the astronomy tower. There were strange 's' shaped stones in some of the south corridors, while the entrance hall was lined with triangular stones. Yet in all his wanderings of Hogwarts, he'd never found circular stones. He was sure this meant something, but…He realized Professor Kurze was speaking to him.

            "I'm sorry?" he said and she stared hard at him for a moment.

            "Apology accepted. Don't let it happen again." She turned and went up the steps. Uric stared after her for a moment, trying to comprehend what had happened, than shrugged and followed her up. He stepped on every third step and only on the right side of each without conscious thought.  

            Headmistress Kurze walked across her plush carpet and sat down in her customary chair. When Uric reached the top of the stairs, she motioned for him to sit in a chair in front of her desk. Misunderstanding the gesture, Uric walked up to her desk and examined it thoroughly. He seemed to remember a pretty glass ball had been there last time. Nothing was to be seen, however, except for a single piece of parchment. He reached out to pick it up and her hand came down on it with a loud thump. 

            "May I see it, ma'am?" he asked, remembering his manners. She regarded him for a moment, than took her hand away. Uric gave her a smile, than sat down. Luckily, there was a chair behind him.

            "I called you here because I have received a letter from your father, the same one which you hold in your hand." Uric looked at his hand, than looked at his other one. Sure enough, there was a piece of parchment in it. It was amazing what his hands would do when he wasn't looking.

            "What did Father say?" he asked. His hands moved to fold the parchment in half. Professor Kurze looked offended.

            "He seems to think that I have not been taking your safety into consideration."

            "Safety?"

            "Your so-called encounter in the forest," she practically sneered. "I had Dasha comb the forest. There is no proof of your mysterious assailants or your helper." She took a deep breath to calm herself. "Be that as it may, your father has heard of the incident and requested that I take measures to prevent a recurrence. Out of respect for his position, I have decided to accede to his wishes. Therefore, from this day forth, you are not to set foot outside of Hogwarts without the presence of a competent wizard or witch. This includes visiting Dasha and detentions. I shall be informing all the professors of your situation…" she continued to speak, but no longer had Uric's attention. He wondered why they called it butterbeer. It certainly didn't taste like butter, and he should know, he had eaten a whole bowl of butter once. It did taste a bit like butter on fresh bread though. Perhaps that was what it was made of? 

            "Is that clear, Mr. Beaufolle? Mr. Beaufolle? Uric!" Uric's hazel eyes focused on her. His hands continued to fold the parchment. "Have you heard anything I've said?" she demanded. The steel was back in her voice and he was aware of her glare again. 

            "Yes, ma'am. I'm not to leave the castle." She relaxed a fraction.

            "You must learn to look like you're paying attention, Mr. Beaufolle. I want you to make an effort at it." She gave him a rather cold smile of encouragement. Uric didn't know what she was talking about, but gave her the answer that seemed to have worked before.

            "Yes, ma'am." She nodded approvingly.

            "Very good. That will be all," she said. Uric continued to sit in the chair, and the slight smile slipped from her face. "You are free to go, Mr. Beaufolle." Her teeth were clenched. Uric watched her curiously. The Headmistress was a strange woman and he would have liked to watch her more, but it was nearing lunch time and Uric had planned a massive foray against the turnips for noon. He stood up, placed the parchment on the desk and left the office. Headmistress Kurze sat rigid in her chair, staring in a mixture of disgust and wonder at the folded creature of parchment that was ambling gently across her desk, making snuffling noises as it went.

*****

           The Christmas holidays came quickly and Uric didn't even notice that he was confined to the castle. Professor Stewart was forced to come up with a new type of detention for him and had taken to assigning him to help other teachers with their more dangerous projects. This worked until the professors started refusing to even consider giving Uric detention, which is why Uric found himself helping Mr. Kurze repair portraits early in the morning of the first day of the holidays. 

            At six Mr. Kurze walked into the room and found the portraits all crowded in a circle around Uric. They were yelling and screaming at each other while Uric watched happily, his head turning from side to side as he focused on each speaker. Mr. Kurze sighed. He should have known better to go on a patrol of the corridors while Uric was up and about. 

            "Uric!" he yelled. The portraits fell markedly silent. Uric turned and grinned cheerfully at him.

            "Yes, Sir?" Mr. Kurze remembered the issue at hand.

            "Have you been out of this room?" he asked. 

            "Yes," Uric answered, though he looked confused. Mr. Kurze was about to reprimand the boy when he realized what Uric meant.

            "I mean, have you been out of this room since I left it?"

            "No, Sir."

            "And has anyone else been in this room?"

            "Other than the portraits?" asked the boy in an innocent tone. 

            "Portraits aren't people Uric and neither are statues. Don't think that I haven't heard an earful about your little chat with the gargoyle." He had heard more than an earful unfortunately. His wife was not one to be trifled with. "Has anyone been in here?" Uric shook his head.

            "No, Sir," he answered. Mr. Kurze sighed, and decided to make one last stab at trying to get information out of Uric.

            "You wouldn't happen to know how someone broke into my office and stole that invisibility cloak I took off of you?" 

            "Alohomora, a common unlocking spell can be used on nearly all locked contrivances. One must take account of the additional barrier spells that a more suspicious wizard or witch might place around an object or room. In that case-" 

            "Yes, thank you, Uric," said Mr. Kurze. He was sure that somewhere up in the library, there was a book with the exact words that Uric had just parroted at him. "If the portraits are done, than you can go. You wouldn't want to miss your carriage." He surveyed the room unseeing, until he noticed the tug on his robes. Uric was looking up at him, an earnest look on his face.

            "If fruit were sentient, which fruit do you think would be their king? I like cherries, but they're too small. Maybe they could be foot soldiers. How about a banana as king? Are we allowed to have bent kings?" Mr. Kurze started chuckling, than progressed into full laughter at the puzzled look the boy was giving him. "Excuse me, but-," Uric started to ask, but Mr. Kurze waved the question away. 

            "Go get ready to leave, Uric," said Mr. Kurze in between his chuckles. Uric shrugged and walked out of the room. The portraits started yelling again.

*****

Well, I can guarantee Christmas in the next chapter. 

Thank you to all my reviewers: Zadesko, Em, Gred Weasley, Mad Potter, Tess, Kirkusmaximus12, Tidmag, Thistlemeg, Ozma, AkinZR, Giesbrecht, NM (Narcissa Malfoy), Amberdulen, AniMourner and Unknnown. 

Well, everybody seemed to ask the same question about why the masked wizards want Uric. There will be clues on that in the next chapter, actually there was a clue in this chapter, but it was rather subtle…This chapter just ended up being mostly filler, though hopefully it wasn't too bad:) 

Please review. 


	12. Yule Tide

A/N: I didn't want to shift the focus of the story to outside of Hogwarts, so Louis took over at least half of the chapter. Hope you don't mind…

Chapter 12: Yule Tide

            Louis was in the middle of buttering a crumpet when Mena sat down next to him. Mrs. Kurze had deemed it inefficient to have four tables set out for less than thirty students, so they were all eating breakfast at one main table. Louis had chosen a seat as far away from everyone else as possible. Trust Mena to ignore the clear sign that he wanted to be left alone. He took a bite of the crumpet, than swallowed before addressing her.

            "Good morning, Mena. To what do I owe the honour of your presence?" He could see her glaring at him out of the corner of his eye. 

            "Why weren't you there this morning to say goodbye to Uric?" she asked. 

            "Because saying goodbye to Uric would have meant saying goodbye to everyone," he stated flatly.

            "That's not good enough." She started haphazardly cutting up a sausage. 

            "It's going to have to be," he said.

            "You're always so worried about your image, about what other people think about you," she complained.

            "And you're not, Miss I-want-to-be-in-Gryffindor?" She coloured and hit him. The pumpkin juice in his hand sloshed over the side of the cup and onto his hand and the table. 

            "That's not the same!"

            "Of course it's not," agreed Louis, if only to keep the peace. He searched around for a napkin, than finally used his sleeve. "So what do you want to do today?" She frowned at him.

            "Do?" she said. Louis rolled his eyes.

            "The holidays start today, so unless you want to get an early start on your homework, we have the day free." 

            "What? You don't mind spending time with a Hufflepuff, and a muggle-born to boot?" she asked. 

            "Not when no one else is around to see my shame." He had meant it as a joke, but Mena got this sad look on her face when he said it. He sighed. "Look, Mena. If I didn't want to spend time with you or Uric, I wouldn't. You're my," he hesitated a moment before saying it. "Friends." Mena grinned happily at him and he grinned back, though it was more in amusement at the large smear of honey that had somehow found its way to her cheek. 

            "Let's go flying then," she said, and Louis rolled his eyes. How had he known she was going to say that?

*****

            Mena and Louis wandered out of the Great Hall. They were stuffed from the huge amount of food that had been available at the Christmas feast. Afterwards, Professor's Bear, Kerman, Thacher, Leonard and Wright had surprised the hall by providing some entertainment. Louis had to admit that they did sing rather well together. He just wished that Mena wasn't still going on about it.

            "Who would have thought they could sing like that? I wonder why they don't do it more often," she gushed. 

            "We do. It's just usually in private," said a friendly voice behind them. They turned to look.

            "Hello, Professor Kerman," said Mena. "Merry Christmas." The professor smiled at her.

            "Merry Christmas to you both. Where's Uric? I seem to always find you together." 

            "Uric went home for Christmas, Professor Kerman," suggested Mena. She sounded doubtful of the professor's memory. 

            "I met him at his carriage this morning. I would hope he's still here."

"Where is he then, Professor?" asked Louis. Kerman unconsciously stroked his goatee before answering.

            "I escorted him to Hufflepuff after I picked him up. You should have run into him there." Louis looked over at Mena. She met his eyes and shook her head. 

            "He isn't there Professor and he wasn't at the feast," Louis said.

            "I'm sure he's alright. You know how that boy is. Wandering about the castle all the time. If he weren't such a good student, I'd be worried about him." He gave them a small smile that was meant to be reassuring. Louis, deciding they would get no more information from him, made his apologies and walked off in the opposite direction Kerman had been going. Mena had to run to catch up with him. 

            "He is right about Uric wandering the castle all the time," Mena pointed out.

            "But he loves to eat, well at least to play with what he eats. You don't really think he would miss the feast on purpose, do you?" Mena shook her head.

            "Not on purpose. But that's the trouble with him. He never does anything on purpose," she said with a shrug. They walked in silence for awhile until Mena spoke again. "We can search for him, but he knows the castle much better than we do. It'll just be luck if we find him." Louis stopped walking abruptly. 

            "It won't be luck," he said excitedly. "All we need to do is think like Uric!" Mena gave him a doubtful look. 

            "You're already beginning to think like him, if you think that will work," she said. Louis ran his hand through his hair.

            "It will work. Uric always ends up in the strangest and most out of the way places in Hogwarts, at least according to Mr. Kurze he does."

            "You've been talking to Mr. Kurze?" Mena sounded incredulous. 

            "I overheard him in the corridors one day." She looked at him out of the corner of her eye.

            "You must "overhear" a lot of people sometimes." Louis shrugged.

            "Sometimes." He changed the subject. "All I can think of is that room on the third floor with fuzzy walls. You know anywhere else he might go?" Mena considered it.

            "We can always check the rooms he showed me on Hallowe'en and he likes to wander the dungeons a lot. I think Mr. Kurze told him to stay out of there, so of course, he keeps accidentally wandering down there," she said. 

            "Do you have any idea how big the dungeons are? Just the other day, a second-year Slytherin got lost on her way to the Common Room and ended up stuck in a room full of sentient feather beds for over a day," he said.  

            "You're exaggerating," said Mena stubbornly. Louis sighed, and headed for the dungeons. 

            "Only half the time."

*****

            Uric sat on top of the book shelf, his arms curled around his legs, while he stared pensively at the opposite wall. There was a painting of a fruit bowl there, and every once and awhile, the apple would turn to look at him. He wondered what it would be like to be a fruit. Probably about as much fun as being a vegetable he decided, only more people liked fruit than vegetables. 

            "You do not belong here," said a sombre voice beside him. Uric didn't move. Had that pear just winked at him? The voice tried again. "It is forbidden to enter in here. This room belongs to me." The temperature of the room dropped and the lights flickered. Uric wondered why the fruit were all in a bowl together anyway. Something hazy appeared in front of him. Uric leant forward slightly in order to see the painting better. Did they like spending their lives in a bowl, or would they prefer being made into a nice pie? "Uric Beaufolle!" roared a voice. The lights went out and the room was lit by a blue glow. Uric frowned at the ghost in front of him. He wanted to see the fruit.

            "Hello, Mr. Bloody Baron," he said politely, despite his annoyance. "Could you turn the lights back on? I want to see the fruit." The ghost glared at him, and Uric could see the sparkle of the silvery blood stains on his collar. 

            "This room is mine. It has been sealed since I died." His voice deepened to a roar and a strange wind picked up. "YOU WILL LEAVE!" Uric shivered in the strange wind, than frowned furiously at the ghost. He was being very rude. All Uric wanted to do was look at the fruit. 

            "No," he said. "Go away!" For a second the ghost stared incredulously at him. Then his already transparent body began to fade away. The Baron tried to scream, but his voice sounded very far away. His eyes were the last thing to go. Once they disappeared the lights came back on and the room suddenly felt warmer. 

            "Uric! Uric!" called two different voices. Uric sighed and looked around. There below him were Mena and Louis. "How in the world did you do that, Uric?" asked Louis once he was sure of Uric's attention.

            "Do what?" He stared at them, a puzzled expression on his face. Mena and Louis exchanged glances. Louis decided to ask a different question.

            "What are you doing here, Uric? The Baron was right. This room is forbidden, especially to non-Slytherins. For that matter, what are you doing back at school?" Uric took one last look at the fruit, than jumped off the book shelf. He landed and rolled before standing up and brushing off his Hufflepuff badge. A quick check revealed the badger was alright. He looked longingly at the fruit painting. He didn't really want to answer the question. It made him sad. "Come on Uric, why didn't you come and find us when you got back?" There was a long pause before Uric answered. 

"Father sent me here. He didn't want me for Christmas." There was hurt in Uric's voice.  

"That's horrible," said Mena. Louis glared at her. She should know by now that Uric's view of the world was very rarely based in reality. Uric's parents cared a lot about him and wouldn't have sent him home without a reason. It was best to get the full story before sympathizing. 

"Don't worry about it, Uric," said Louis, putting his hand on Uric's shoulder. "Your father must be working hard and probably needs all his concentration so he can figure out a way of not losing his job." Both Mena and Uric frowned at him.

            "My father is a respected council member," Uric said. 

            "Well, the entire council is in trouble. There is a coalition working for the abolition of the existing system."

            "But what will they replace it with?" asked Mena.

            "The Daily Prophet says they're favouring a system similar to France's organization. With ministries and such." Louis reflected that this was probably the first time he had Uric's full attention. He was actually beginning to find his friend's hazel-eyed stare unnerving. He remembered what had just happened to the Baron and suppressed a shiver. 

            "Who's winning then?" asked Mena, and Uric broke his stare. Louis took a deep breath and thought about her question for a moment.

            "It's not that simple unfortunately. Both sides are presenting solid arguments. The Wizarding Council points out that we've had a council for over a thousand years and look how well it has turned out. The Abolition faction just turns around and points out all the mistakes the Council has made over the years. Perhaps the Abolition's best argument is the wizard's themselves. Our population has been growing, not to mention the muggle-borns who join us each year. How can a council of nine wizards be expected to control the affairs of so many people?" It almost seemed like he was asking _her the question. She grew flustered at the thought, especially since she wasn't entirely sure what he was talking about. Uric was watching them both curiously._

            "Why didn't you tell us this before?" she asked. Louis blinked at her. She sounded very annoyed. 

            "It's not my fault you don't read the Daily Prophet, and what can we do about it anyway? They don't exactly consult eleven year-olds on government policy."

            "They should. You'd be very good at it," she said. Louis gave her a small bow. 

            "Why thank you." He paused. "You, on the other hand, would be horrible at it." She glared at him for the insult, but he was pretty sure that she agreed with him. "Now Uric, what did your father say to you before he sent you back here?"

            "He said goodbye." 

            "Nothing about why he was sending you home?" Louis asked. Uric shook his head. "How about your mother, what did she say?"

            "Good bye, Uric. Make sure you do your work and keep yourself safe. You should write more often as well," he said in an uncanny imitation of his mother, though it would have been more uncanny perhaps if Louis and Mena had ever met his mother. 

            "Uh, right," said Louis, disconcerted by the strange tone Uric had taken. He took a moment to think. "Do you know why they sent you home?" Uric thought very hard about the question.

            "Father was talking to mum," he answered slowly. "He said it wasn't safe for me to stay." 

            "It sounds like he wanted you to stay Uric," said Mena.

            "Mum wanted me to stay," said Uric. There was still a touch of sadness in his voice.

            "Like I said," said Louis. "Your father's very busy and maybe they really did send you back to keep you safe." Both Mena and Louis knew about the attack on Uric, though only because Uric had accidentally mentioned it. Louis had his suspicions about the attack, but he didn't want to mention them to the other two in case he was wrong. He agreed with Mrs. Kurze's policy of keeping Uric in the castle, though Mena seemed to take it as some sort of punishment for Uric. Louis decided to do what he usually did when the conversation was becoming awkward. He changed the subject.

            "So why don't you show us your Christmas presents, Uric?"

            "Okay," said Uric brightly, his earlier upset forgotten. "My cousin Grahm gave me paper!"

            "That's great," said Mena half heartedly. "Paper?" she mouthed at Louis. He shrugged and followed Uric out the door.

*****

Well, the holidays are over and I'm back at Uni. Unfortunately this means I have some essays due, so chapters may be a bit longer in coming than usual. I'm getting up to the points in the story where I've written ahead though, so who knows…

Thank you so much to all my reviewers: Tidmag, NM (Narcissa Malfoy), Giesbrecht, Zadesko, Kirkusmaximus12, Em, Gred Weasley, Crydwyn, thistlemeg, Cairo, Ozma, raeban, AniMourner and Tess. 

I apologize for calling the last chapter filler. What I meant when I said that was that the chapter wasn't really planned. I just knew I wanted Christmas to be in a chapter by itself, which meant I had to somehow mention the disappearance of the invisibility cloak and think of other fun things to write to fill in the chapter so that Christmas happened within chapter twelve. You know, I estimated that this story would be about thirteen chapters long when I started…boy was I wrong:)

NM: Louis' situation is complicated and he knows he would be better off in the long run leaving Uric and Mena alone, but he likes them and wants to spend time with them. Thank you for the question, since it helped me focus on Louis so that he could have a bit of character development in this chapter. 

AniMourner: I was about to answer you no about Mena's broom skills, but then I realized that while I know what's going to happen near the end of this story, I don't really know how it's going to happen. I prefer to let my brain surprise itself, so Mena's flying skills may come into play and then again, they may not. Alexis is still around but Mena is the one she dislikes. She really couldn't care less about Uric, so a lot of the things she does just pass beneath his notice. Rest assured, she's still manipulating the teachers and getting the first-year Slytherins to worship her. No doubt, she will insinuate herself into one of my chapters soon.

Crydwyn: Well, I seem to update on average about once every ten days (this varies greatly when I have essays to finish…). If you want to give me your email in your review, or in an email, I will add you to the update list I send out when I post a new chapter. That way you won't have to be disappointed:)

Em: Yes, I'm very inspired atm. Too bad I'm going to have to focus on my essays for a bit. Mrs. Kurze does care about Uric in her own special way. She wouldn't be trying so hard to 'reform' him if she didn't care. 

Tess: The clue wasn't in the fruit business, though bent is a slang word, not for crazy though. "Get bent" means about the same as bugger off. I'm sure it didn't mean that when Uric used it, but I haven't a clue what it did mean:)

(I've read over these author's notes and realized I was babbling. Guess that's what I get for writing them while jet lagged. Don't feel like rewriting them though, so hopefully they make sense.)

So does anyone have any ideas about why the wizards want Uric now? 

Review, and feel free to ask me as many questions as you like. If you hadn't noticed, I love to answer them:)


	13. Pranks and Pleas

Chapter 13: Pranks and Pleas

            "You can't hand this in, Uric," said Mena, thrusting a parchment under Uric's nose. He looked up from where he had been attempting to bore a hole in the table with his eyes. He had been trying for the past half hour, though he really wasn't sure if Madame Dilwen, the librarian, would approve. She had already told him off once for giving his History of Magic textbook legs. He had tried to explain that it was his book and that it just wanted to roam free, but she didn't seem to be listening. 

            "Pardon?" he said looking at Mena with a puzzled expression. They were in the library doing some essays that were due the next day, though Louis was the only one who was really working at the moment. Mena was executing her self appointed duty to edit Uric's papers and make sure nothing too strange made it through to the professors. Uric was just trying to figure out if Madame Dilwen would mind him giving his text book arms instead.

            "Your Transfiguration essay," said Mena, speaking slowly in the hopes that Uric would understand. "The first part of it is okay, but then…" She trailed off. Uric was just giving her a polite but blank smile, and she had to resist the urge to hit him over the head with his own essay. She took a deep breath. "Listen to this, 'Transforming a human being into an inanimate object is considered one of the hardest forms of transfiguration second to self transfiguration. I tried turning myself into a badger yesterday, but although the other badgers didn't say anything, I think they could tell I wasn't one. Maybe I will try a bird tomorrow.'" Mena stopped reading to stare pointedly at him.

            "It wasn't a good example?" asked Uric, trying to figure out what had been wrong with the essay. Louis looked up from his own writing, a smile on his face.

            "I think you should let him hand it in, Mena. Professor Leonard would appreciate his attempt at research." Mena scowled at him. 

            "We'd be lucky if he thought it was a joke," she said, and dropped the parchment in front of Uric. "Use an example from a book, not your own experience." Uric frowned at her, then down at the parchment. He thought the badger transformation was his best point. 

            "Here," said Louis, passing a small vial over to him. "You can use my ink eraser potion. Just be careful not to get it on your fingers. It'll erase them too." Uric was giving the potion a delighted look and Louis wondered if he wasn't making a mistake. 

            "Excuse me," said a voice. Louis looked up. It was a Gryffindor. It took him a moment to recognize which particular Gryffindor. Alexander Lupin. The golden hair and pale skin gave him away. 

            "Someone wants you, Uric," said Louis, keeping his voice casual.  Alexis had declared Alexander a person non grata to the other first-year Slytherins along with all the other first-year Gryffindors. Louis didn't think he would treat his brother that way, no matter what house he landed in, but then, Louis was an only child. Alexander shook his head at Uric when he looked up from playing with the eraser potion. 

            "I don't want to talk to you," he said firmly, than coloured when Uric frowned at him. "I mean, I do want to talk to you, just not at the moment. I need to talk to Louis." Louis winced. This was not going to be good. Uric went back to the potion. 

            "Yes?" Louis said, keeping his eyes focused on a place somewhere beyond Uric's left shoulder. Alexis ignored him most of the time, for all he was from a highly influential family, but if word got out that he was chatting with her brother…

            "You're a Slytherin," said Alexander. Louis rolled his eyes. 

            "Yes, and I have black hair. Can we stop stating the obvious here?" 

            "I need you to talk to Alexis for me," said Alexander in a rush, as if he were afraid Louis was going to turn him away if he didn't speak fast enough. Louis was certainly tempted to. 

            "Why?" he asked instead.

            "She won't talk to me. Over the holidays, she wouldn't even acknowledge me as her brother. Well, except in front of our parents. With them she was all sweet and polite like she usually is." Mena snorted rather loudly from across the table and Louis glanced at her. He had forgotten she was there. 

            "Alexis is never sweet and polite," said Mena pointedly. "You're better off without her anyway." Alexander shrugged.

            "She's my sister, and it wasn't always this bad. She's just very good at getting what she wants." He focused back on Louis. "Will you talk to her for me?" 

            "No. Send her an owl, or a howler if you prefer."

            "But why won't you?" asked Alexander desperately. Louis could feel his quill bending in his hands and forced himself to relax his grip. 

            "Have you seen Seraph Cazher lately?" he asked. Alexander looked puzzled. 

            "The red-headed girl? She's in the hospital wing. A Potion's accident right?" he hazarded a guess. Louis nodded his head.

            "Yes, a Potion's accident set by your sister because Seraph has the equal misfortune of being exceptionally pretty as well as acid tongued. She never knows when to stop and went a bit too far." He paused to let the knowledge sink in. "You would probably get along well with her," said Louis speculatively. Alexander looked angrily at him.

            "I'm Alexis' brother. She wouldn't treat me like that." Louis noticed that he didn't deny that Alexis would do something like that to Seraph. 

            "You're a Gryffindor," said Louis.

            "Now who's pointing out the obvious?" said Alexander triumphantly. Louis rolled his eyes. 

            "It's not obvious if one of us doesn't get the point." Louis turned away from the boy and attempted to focus on his Herbology assignment, willing Alexander to leave and knowing that the boy was frowning at his back. He was distracted when he realized that Uric had erased half of the table during their discussion.

            "You're really scared of Alexis aren't you?" asked Mena from across the remains of the table. Louis risked a quick glance behind him and saw that Alexander was gone. 

            "Not scared, just wary. Alexis can make my life for the next seven years horrible, just like she's doing right now to Seraph," he said by way of explanation. Mena got a gleam in her eye that Louis had learned to dread over the Christmas holidays. 

            "Why don't you make her life a bit miserable then? I have a great plan." She seemed very confident. 

            "I'm sure it is," said Louis and attempted to change the subject. "You know Madame Dilwen is going to kill you, Uric." Uric looked up from where he was selectively erasing parts of the table to create a rather accurate self-portrait. Uric opened his mouth to say something, but Mena spoke first.

            "All we need are a few ingredients and Uric's potion brewing expertise. What do you think, Uric?" 

            "Do you think it's possible for floors to be ticklish? They'd be tickled every time we walk on them, but how would they laugh? Maybe when the floors shake it's when they're actually laughing. Oh, and what happens when we run, or when we dance?" Louis almost explained to Uric that the floors of Hogwarts didn't shake (well, most of them) and were not ticklish, but realized it would do no good. Mena however gave him a triumphant look.

            "See? He agrees," she said. Louis rolled his eyes. 

            "Since when has babble about floors qualified as agreement?" he asked. 

            "Since we met Uric," she said and Louis was hard pressed to disagree with her.

            They left the library a little later, after discussing the details of the plan. It would take a few days to brew the potion, but none of the ingredients were unusual enough to require their special attainment. The potion was hard to brew true, but Uric was capable of making it, even if they did have to agree to go 'laughing floor' hunting with him so that he would concentrate enough to brew it. 

A few hours later, Madame Dilwen wondered where half of one of her tables had gotten to and why what was left looked like someone she knew. 

*****

            Three days later, they put Mena's plan, with a bit of modification by Louis, into motion. The halls were crowded when the classes changed and it was not an uncommon sight to see Alexis standing outside one of the classrooms, chatting happily with a professor and twirling a strand of hair around her finger. Uric couldn't figure out why he had been told to watch her, but he did, standing in the middle of the corridor and making the students pass around him. 

            Professor Leonard went back into his classroom, and Alexis began to walk towards Uric. He looked away from her and began to concentrate very hard like Mena and Louis had asked him to. He chanted to himself very softly and clutched his wand tightly. The pressure in the corridor changed slightly and the students began giving the air around them funny looks. There was a breath of wind that brought with it a fresh smell and small clouds began to form above Uric's head. He kept chanting, but backed up towards one wall. 

            The small clouds joined up to form big ones and soon the whole ceiling was a roiling mass of dark storm clouds. The students were already panicking and attempting to get out of the crowded but narrow corridor when the rain began. It came down in a torrent, soaking the students through their robes. And then the lightening started. 

            The shrieks were beginning to bother Uric and he grimaced as someone kicked his shin in an attempt to get past. A flash of lightening sent little white glowing shapes dancing across his eyes, which is why he missed Louis casually pouring a potion through a makeshift colander onto Alexis' head. 

            Professor Leonard was able to push past the students and out of the classroom. With a few words he banished the storm, and the layer of water on the floor. However, he couldn't do much about drying so many students and sent most of them to their common rooms to change while he informed the Headmistress. 

            An investigation by Mr. Kurze declared the storm a freak incident of the kind that was all too common in a castle of Hogwart's age and level of magical intensity. 

*****

            The next day, the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins were leaving Charms. Most of them were in a bad mood after attempting a particularly difficult sleeping charm. A few of them were dozing on their friend's shoulders as an after effect. Alexis strode ahead of them, and those who were dozing were awakened abruptly by a horrendous wail. 

            Uric stared in confusion with the rest of the class as all their lose possessions – quills, books, sweets and other handy objects including one very confused owl – began to swirl in a growing mayhem about Alexis. More and more things were attracted to her from all over the school and the class was forced to duck as random objects came flying through the corridors to dance around their chosen mistress. 

It grew so bad that Uric could no longer see Alexis through the maelstrom, though he could hear her yelling in fury. She was attempting to curse the objects away, but they didn't seem to want to leave. Uric watched carefully in the hopes of seeing a badger. He was disappointed, though he did see a portrait of Helga Hufflepuff fly by. The rest of the class alternated between gaping at their flying belongings or sniggering uncontrollably at the mess Alexis had gotten herself into.

Professor Thacher attempted to end the spell, but nothing he cast had any effect. A student was sent to fetch the Headmistress, and she tried to end the spell as well. However, soon after she arrived the storm of objects died down and Alexis was revealed standing in a bare patch of corridor. Miscellaneous objects piled all around her to form a wall that was blasted away by a sweep of Mrs. Kurze's wand. 

Alexis face was red, her hair was dishevelled and her robes were askew, but she looked unhurt. No one laughed, though that was mostly because she was sending a disoriented but very angry glare their way. Alexis was led away to the infirmary to assure her good health and the students were told to disperse by a very cross looking Mrs. Kurze. 

As soon as they were out of sight, the class started talking. Everyone was at a loss to explain what had happened, but they had to agree it was the most exciting and/or amusing thing they had seen in a long time. Uric had forgotten about the incident by lunch time, though the rest of the school hadn't. It was what everyone talked about for the rest of the day. Uric didn't mind, though he did wonder why Mena kept smiling and breaking into giggles for no reason. 

Mr. Kurze was once again forced to conclude that Alexis' experience was just another of the vagaries of living in such a magically endowed place as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. 

*****

            Uric sat up in his bed and promptly banged his head. It took him a moment to realize that this was because he was comfortably ensconced under the bed. Rubbing his forehead, he rolled out from under the bed. The 'sleep under the bed to make sure the pudding didn't get under there' idea probably hadn't been one of his best. After all, if he was under the bed, what was to stop the pudding from getting on top of the bed? He froze in a crouch and glanced warily at the empty mattress beside him. No pudding. Though there was a piece of parchment. Uric started to breath again. 

            He brushed the dust off of himself, than pulled on some trousers and a loose jumper. He picked up his robe, turned it upside down so the sleeves trailed on the floor and attempted to put it on. He was able to get his legs into the sleeves but he couldn't seem to find a reason for the large hole in between them. After much thought, he finally gave up and pulled the robe on over his head since he hadn't bothered to undo the clasp the day before. As an afterthought, he picked up the piece of parchment on his bed and stuffed it in his pocket. 

Everything was ready for the day, except…Simon! Uric walked over to the head of his bed where his bird-lizard's cage usually lay. The cage was still there, but the cloth covering it had fallen to the floor and the door was ajar. Simon was gone.

*****

I took a break from essays yesterday to write this…Don't worry. Most of the next chapter is written (it's really long too…) and will be put up as soon as I put the finishing touches on it:) 

Thank you to all my reviewers: Tidmag, Selenity and Pure Night, Chad-Catsmeat, thistlemeg, Em, NM (Narcissa Malfoy), Giesbrecht, Gred Weasley, Kath, Mad Potter, Ozma, aurielo, Albert and Crydwyn. 

Tidmag: I see that Uric has been affecting you…:)

Em: I think we could all use a bit of Uric in our lives don't you think? It certainly would make life interesting:)

NM (Narcissa Malfoy): Uric's father is definitely for keeping the existing Council system, after all, there's been a Beaufolle on the council since 1128…

Chad-Catsmeat: Mr. Kurze wants to see the mysterious woman so much because she's an intruder at Hogwarts who appears to be bypassing some of its basic protections. He's concerned with keeping the students safe, especially Uric since the woman seems to follow him around. As for the Bloody Baron, all will be explained…eventually.

Albert: I think it's just part of my writing style that I like to describe how the other people in a conversation are responding to the person speaking, but starting a new paragraph each time I do that would get cumbersome. I just work harder these days at identifying who is speaking and hope it works:)

Please review. If anyone wants to be placed on the list of people I email when I update please let me know in your review as well. Thanks. 


	14. Missing

            Mena rolled away from the wall and grumbled softly in her sleep. In her dream, it felt like someone was staring at her…Staring at her…Her eyes flew open and she let out a yell. 

"Uric!" Mena hit him with her pillow. Uric's eyes had been inches from her face, and the light from the moon had made them seem even brighter than normal. He rocked back from her blow, but when she made to throw the pillow at him, he came forward and caught her arm. She stared at him. She had never seen Uric defend himself. "What do you want Uric?" she asked softly, noticing for the first time the worry in his eyes. Uric glanced around the room, as if he expected someone to be listening. 

            "Simon's missing," he said. "I've searched the castle. He's not here." Mena yawned.

            "You can't have looked everywhere. I'm sure he'll turn up," she said, trying to get him to go away. She didn't need to be up all night searching for Simon when he would probably turn up in the Common Room tomorrow. Uric just shook his head.

            "Will you help me look, Mena?" he asked. She stifled a groan. 

            "Isn't there some sort of spell you can use to find him?" she asked in the vain hope that there was. Uric got that faraway look in his eyes he always had when he was thinking about something, and Mena almost fell asleep waiting for him to give her an answer. 

            "Yes," he answered eventually, surprising her. He reached into his pocket and pulled out one of Simon's stunted feathers. He walked over to the window, and Mena followed, her curiosity making her forget her fatigue. The Hufflepuff girl's dormitories actually faced out over one of the main courtyards of Hogwarts, giving them a view of the castle on all sides. The moon was very bright, and it looked like it was full. 

            Uric placed the feather carefully on the ledge and pointed his wand at it. "_Locus aperio." A jet of blue light shot out of the wand and hit the feather, making it glow. The feather hovered above the ledge, and Uric reached out to open the window, sending a blast of cool air towards them. The glowing feather spun around once or twice than shot out the window. They both squeezed forward to see where it went. It headed across the courtyard and through an arch to the left. Mena glanced at Uric. He was frowning. _

            "Simon's not in the castle," he said, still staring out at the arch. 

            "Alright, where is he?" 

            "Out there. I have to find him. He might be hurt." He sounded really worried. Mena realized that she wasn't going to get anymore sleep tonight. She sighed. 

            "Let me get dressed Uric and then we'll go look." A thought occurred to her. If she was going to lose sleep, than why shouldn't Louis suffer as well? "We can search a lot faster with three people. Do you know how to get to Louis at this time of night?" It would require them getting into the Slytherin dungeons, but she wouldn't be surprised if Uric knew a way. Uric seemed to like the idea, and nodded, though he was still staring out the window. She grabbed his arm, and shoved him towards the doorway. "Go get him then and meet me in the Common Room." 

*****

            Uric stumbled into the Slytherin Common Room, the wall almost closing upon him. It had taken a bit of convincing to get it to open in the first place and now it just wanted him to leave. He hoped it would let him out again later. 

            Absently noting the lack of plants in the common room, he chose a random doorway and headed through. A loud snore greeted him. For a second, he stopped to wonder just what sort of creature would make that noise while sleeping and almost went to investigate, but the creatures under the sheets were too big to be Louis so he moved onward. He checked three more dormitories before he found the one he was looking for. Louis' face was directly in the moonlight from the small head sized window, making him seem even more pale than usual. 

            Uric approached cautiously. Louis lay on his back and didn't even appear to be breathing. After considering for awhile, Uric transfigured Louis' blanket into a large bouquet of flowers and waited. Louis slowly opened his eyes and focused on the ceiling above him. His hand tightened about the flowers as he frowned. He turned his head to the side to reveal Uric, than looked back at the flowers. 

            "I should have known," he said as he sat up. 

            "Simon's missing," said Uric. "He's not in the castle and we have to find him before he gets hurt." Louis decided this must be serious. Uric had stayed on a serious topic for two full sentences. He tossed the bouquet back on his bed, and went to pull on his robes. 

            "Let's go find him then." 

*****

            The unicorn snorted gently at them, and they saw the Maiden yawn a moment before the portrait opened. They stepped into the Hufflepuff common room. Louis stopped to look around at the slithering plants, but Uric ignored them. He walked across the room, carefully avoiding the intertwined vines and jumped on top of the couch Mena was currently dozing upon. She shrieked as he lost his balance and fell on top of her. 

            "Get off me!" She pushed him onto the carpet. Louis joined them after a moment, the light dusting of pink on his robes revealing an encounter with one of the spitting flowers that Uric disliked so much. Uric stood up and straightened his robes. 

            "Let's go find Simon," he said and kept nodding his head until Mena got up to leave. Louis held out a hand to stop them.

            "Wait! First, how did he get out?" he asked. Uric stopped, and gave him a puzzled look. 

            "Get out?" Uric repeated, and Louis was sure that the question hadn't even occurred to him. 

            "He didn't just open the cage himself," said Louis scathingly. "You did have him in his cage didn't you?" Uric sometimes wandered around the castle with Simon on his shoulder, but Uric was smart enough to keep the bird-lizard in a cage when they weren't out wandering. However, Louis was sure Uric would have known where Simon was if he had just lost him within the castle. Uric nodded his head. 

            "Yes, and he had to open it himself. The door was open when I woke up." Uric was proud of Simon for that. Even he had trouble opening the door to Simon's cage sometimes. Louis frowned. 

            "Was there anything else unusual, Uric? Think hard. This is important," he said, hoping that Uric was in the proper mood to answer his question. They waited awhile while Uric closed his eyes and searched his memory. Suddenly, Uric grinned and reached into his pocket. He offered a piece of parchment to Louis. 

            "There was this," he said proudly. Louis unrolled the small piece of parchment and read it out loud.

            "This is for Hallowe'en." He sent a questioning glance Mena's way. "Wasn't that when you two saw Varys in the Dancing Trousers?" Mena's eyes widened. She called Varys a rather harsh name that made Louis grin and Uric give her a puzzled look. 

            "What does that mean?" he asked, and Louis covered his hand with his mouth and pretended to cough so that Uric didn't see him laughing. Mena just gave them both an annoyed look.

            "Don't you see?" she said earnestly. "This means that Varys stole Simon and let him lose outside of the castle. He probably knows you can't leave the castle and is trying to get you in trouble." Uric frowned.

            "That's very mean. Simon and I never hurt him." 

            "Somehow, I don't think he agrees with you," said Louis. Mena began to head towards the door. She turned to look at them when they didn't follow.

            "Come on," she said. "With luck Simon stayed near the castle and we'll find him easily." The two boys followed.

            "Sure," muttered Louis as he walked. "And later Mrs. Kurze will start handing out sweets and name Uric as the future head boy."

            "Will she?" asked Uric. Louis just shook his head. 

*****

            The three of them crept out the main doors and down the steps. They stopped at the bottom, and Uric pointed straight at the Forbidden Forest. It looked very dark against the starlit sky. 

            "Are we sure we should be doing this?" said Mena nervously. "I'm sure one of the professors could find Simon. We can show them the note." Louis nodded his head in agreement.

            "Those masked wizards could still be out there, Uric. You're not supposed to leave the castle," he said. Uric got a determined look on his face.

            "I'm going to find Simon. He might be hurt in the forest. I can't leave him alone there tonight." Uric sounded desperate but determined. He began walking towards the forest. Louis sent a questioning look towards Mena. She looked scared, but still turned to follow Uric. Louis watched them walk for a few moments, than sighed and followed. He was going to regret this.

            They entered the forest with no trouble and Uric cast a lumos spell when it became too hard to see underneath the thick cover of trees. The forest was quiet around them, and Mena and Louis kept casting glances around them wondering what was out there watching. Uric walked ahead of them humming quietly, oblivious to the silence and the occasional glowing pair of eyes that regarded them. Suddenly, an orange creature bounded in between them and let out a plaintive yowl. The three of them froze.

            "Beckett!" said Uric happily. 

            "Dasha," said Louis in a much darker tone. They were going to be caught if they stayed here. "Run!" They all ran as fast as they could towards the inner depths of the forest, though Uric couldn't figure out why they were running. It didn't matter. They were definitely heading towards Simon. He could feel it. Beckett kept pace with them for awhile, then fell behind. 

            The three of them stumbled into the clearing and paused. The brilliant moonlight illuminated a scene right out of their textbooks. Centaurs were scattered about the glade. They were in various states of repose, yet each one of them had his or her eyes focused completely on the heavens. 

            Mena and Louis were more than a bit hesitant to disturb the centaurs at their meditations, but Uric had no such reservations. He walked boldly up to the nearest centaur, a young man with a dappled brown coat, and asked the only question on his mind.

            "Excuse me. Have you seen Simon? He's my bird-lizard and he seems to have gotten a bit lost." The centaur did not even look at him, but gazed with great intensity at the sky. Uric stared at him for a moment, but finally gave up and looked at the sky as well. He looked for a long time, and Louis was about to call him back when he spoke. 

            "The Wild Hunt rides tonight," he said in a voice that sounded much older then an eleven-year olds. As one, the head's of the centaurs turned to focus on the human in their midst. Mena and Louis backed up, frightened by the intensity of the centaur's eyes, for all that they were focused on Uric. 

            "The Hounds of Hell are loosed," intoned a black centaur. A shiver ran up Mena's spine. 

            "The Master rides the pack," said a pretty beige centaur in a low voice.

            "Woe to the Hunted," said a chestnut coloured one.

            "Woe to the Hunter," said another.

            "Death rides tonight," said the centaur closest to Uric. Louis and Mena exchanged a look. They needed to get out of this forest right now. Simon would have to take care of himself. They moved to grab Uric, but he moved so he was standing in the middle of the clearing.

            "Yes. I know all that," he said, dismissing the centaur's predictions out of hand, and sounding a bit annoyed about the entire performance. Both Mena and Louis were gaping at him. "What I want to know is where Simon is." The centaurs stared at him, than turned to look at the heavens again. Mena let out the breath she had been holding. 

            Uric was still standing in the middle of the clearing; his eyes back on the skies. Mena bit her lip, than reluctantly walked into the clearing. She could be brave, even if she wasn't in Gryffindor. After a moment, Louis followed her. The centaurs continued to ignore them.

            "Reminds me of my family," muttered Louis. Mena ignored him and focused on Uric. 

            "Come on, Uric. They're obviously not helping. We need to get out of the forest. Simon will be okay for the night." She put her hand on his shoulder. He turned to look at her and she shut her mouth. 

            It was his eyes that stopped her. No longer did they hold that benign befuddlement that was Uric's usual state. Instead, they were terribly bright, the hazel glowing gold in the moonlight and very, very aware. 

            "Uric?" said a flustered Louis from behind her. A cloud passed over the moon and when it was gone the light had faded from Uric's eyes. He stared at his friends for a moment.

            "Why do you think it's called Hogwarts if hogs don't get warts?" he asked. Mena resisted the urge to hit him, while Louis was staring at him incredulously.

            "Did you hear anything Mena said before? Or what the centaurs said for that matter?" he asked. For a second they thought Uric was going to say no, but he smiled brightly at them.

            "Yes. We need to get out of here. I heard. But you can't get out of an area where the Wild Hunt has been declared. It said so in the _Book of Wild Magic," he said in a matter of fact tone. _

            "And did you know this before you convinced us to go running into the forest in search of your stupid pet?" Mena asked furiously. Uric was taken aback.

            "Simon's not stupid…I don't think I knew." 

            "You don't think you knew?!" She moved to hit him. Louis held her back.

            "Mena stop it. Uric's mind doesn't work like ours and you know it," he said.

            "And that's an excuse for getting us killed?" she exclaimed loudly. The centaurs didn't seem to notice. Louis actually pulled her aside. Uric watched them go with a puzzled expression, but was perfectly content to watch a beetle scuttle across the grass at his feet.

            Meanwhile, at the edge of the clearing Louis was very careful to stand out of Uric's sight behind one of the centaurs. "I've been thinking about this a lot Mena, and I think I have an explanation."

            "For what?" she asked.

            "For why Uric is so, for lack of a better word, odd." Mena looked sceptical but allowed him to continue. "He's a genius, Mena. You've seen the way he remembers everything and always knows the answers, if you can get him to concentrate." She nodded reluctantly. "But he's not just a genius academically. He's a genius magically as well, and that I think, is what did him in. He uses magic constantly, without thought. You saw the way he banished the Baron at Christmas."

            "Okay. I get it. He's brilliant and talented. So is Varys Nachleen," she said scathingly. Louis actually smiled.

            "But Varys isn't connected to the world like Uric is. I suspect the reason he is so out of it all the time is that his mind is dealing with the world on so many different levels. It puts his conscious mind into a sort of hold while it deals with the more important things. Tonight just confirmed my suspicions. For a second there, Uric was giving our world his full attention." He sounded very pleased with himself. Mena shook her head.

            "You know what I think of your theory?" 

            "What?" said Louis, knowing he was in for it.

            "It's a load of -" A deep howl split the night, followed by another and another on top of it. The howls echoed through the woods making something deep within the young wizards shudder. Uric walked around the centaur they had been hiding behind.

            "That's a lot of doggies isn't it?" he said cheerfully

            "Somehow I don't think they're here to play fetch Uric," said Louis, his voice quavering slightly in spite of himself. Another howl split the night. 

The hunt was on. 

*****

Locus is Latin for "location" and aperio means "to reveal". I actually wanted to make the spell Greek, but it just didn't sound right. I hope you all liked this chapter as much as I do. One more essay to go…

Thank you to all my reviewers: aurielo, rabbit, mistri, thistlemeg, Em, Kath, Ozma, Gred Weasley, Tidmag, almost_innocence, gjegje, Clair, AniMourner, Minerva McTabby, Tess and Chad-Catsmeat.

Mistri: Well, according to the agenda of the Fifth Annual Leaf Conference that I just happen to have by my computer here, leaves talk about the following topics: Chlorophyll – How to Keep Yourself Looking Green and Healthy Year Round, Ban Bad Puns or Why Nobody is Allowed to 'Leaf' the Theatre and Orange-The Colour of the Season are just many of the exciting topics those leaves seem to cover.

Ozma: Nope, no one is ever going to be able to show that Alexis had a prank played on her. Mena and Louis plan well together.

Gred Weasley: The corridor storm is an advanced spell that no one would expect a normal first year to be able to perform. But Uric isn't exactly your normal first year…

Tidmag: Thanks for the tip about Pandora's Box. I would never have found it again if you hadn't pointed it out.

AniMourner: Alexis has always been manipulative, especially of her family. She just gave up on Alexander once he got sorted into Gryffindor, which is why he's finally seeing the other side of her…be that as it may, I'm sure when she was younger it wasn't all an act.

Minerva McTabby: Your ship predictions made me laugh:) Mena and Hermione share the same characteristic of being bosy, but Mena isn't really that interested in learning. She does her assignments out of loyalty to her house, but the only extra research she does is for her pranks and she certainly doesn't mind breaking the rules. You're on the right track with Louis, but I don't really plan on addressing that until the sequel. Chances are Peeves will wander into the story, though don't ask me when. Alexis treats the older Slytherin's much like she treats the teachers - she sucks up and manipulates them if she can. The ones who've noticed what she is up to, she ignores since she knows they'll be out of the school at some point. I will be going over the chapters for one more grammar sweep so thanks for the nitpicks. I didn't even realize some of those things needed to be hyphenated:) Strangely enough, I did think of the trouser question before posting that chapter. While I know that the upper crust of Britian wouldn't have been wearing trousers at the time, it seems to me that the commoners would have to be wearing either trousers, skirts or shorts as they go about their work. They probably didn't call them trousers, but if we saw someone wearing them, we would. This is of course excluding parts of Scotland (without going into the debate of when kilts actually came into use…), but I've never specified where the Dancing Trousers came from:) 

Chad-Catsmeat: Not to worry, Alexander has some friends in Gryffindor. He's just confused by the way Alexis has been treating him. 

Please review:)


	15. The Wild Hunt

Chapter 15: The Wild Hunt

_From ghoulies and ghosties_

_And long legged beasties_

_And things that go bump in the dark_

_Good God protect us._

_-Nachtsegen_

            Mena and Louis exchanged looks and started running. Mena had to swerve back for a second to grab Uric and drag him along, but then they were running at full speed through the forest. 

            "We have to reach the edge of the forest and Hogwarts!" yelled Louis in the lead. 

            "Didn't you hear Uric? We can't get out!" responded Mena as she dodged a low hanging branch. 

            "Beckett probably told Dasha we were here. Maybe she came after us," called Louis over his shoulder.

            "Then she's as stupid as we are," breathed Mena, but neither of the boys heard her. Behind them howls split the night, and this time a new noise. The clear tone of a hunting horn rang out across the forest. It was beautiful, but filled with a deep wild call that sent a shiver through their bodies. 

            They ran for a long time, not realising how far into the forest they had come during their run from Beckett. Hope sprang anew when they realised that the trees were thinning out and the dark became a bit less oppressive. But then the howls sounded again, behind and in front of them. The horn followed and it no longer sounded beautiful. It sounded like it came from all around them. All three of them skidded to a halt. 

            "They've got us surrounded," said Louis in a resigned tone. Mena was furious with him for giving up, but a loud snapping noise pulled their attention behind them. A woman lay sprawled over a broken log. Her reddish-brown hair was spread out wildly and for some reason her body ended just under her waist. The woman sputtered and spit a leaf out of her mouth, before sitting up. Mena felt, rather than saw Uric grin beside her. He approached the woman.

            "Hello! Have you seen Simon? Did you know that you have no legs?" he asked politely. The woman stared at him for a moment, than shook her head. 

            "Here I am trying to protect you Uric, and you had to go and run off into the Forbidden Forest on the most dangerous night of the year! Simon would have been fine in the forest for the night," she scolded in her strange accent, all the while tugging at something invisible around her legs.

            "You don't know that," said Uric. Mena could barely see him in the now waning moonlight, but his voice had sounded serious for once. 

            "I hate to break up this lovely debate," said Louis from behind her, "But we're in the forest _now_ and there _is_ a Wild Hunt on. Could we worry about surviving the night?" A howl punctuated his request. The woman seemed to come to herself.

            "You're right. Uric, you have to take my invisibility cloak and hide yourself." She pulled at something around her legs and a shimmering material appeared in her hands. 

            "You do have legs!" said Uric. He was grinning inanely and Mena wanted to smack him, but she had a question first.

            "Why can't we all hide under the cloak? What's so important about Uric?" she asked. The woman gave her a piercing look that was spoiled only slightly by the leaf that still dangled down one side of her face. 

            "I was hired by Mr. Beaufolle to protect his son and I intend to fulfil my duty. Alone, Uric has less chance of being scented by the dogs, not to mention we will act as decoys so he can get out of the forest." Both Mena and Louis opened their mouths to protest, but Uric beat them to it.

            "I'm not going to use the cloak." He sounded sad.

            "Why not?" asked Mena. She was curious to know his reasons.

            "If I use the cloak then Simon won't be able to find me. I can't leave him alone out here. Something bad will happen." The woman looked annoyed. 

            "You're a bit more important than Simon, Uric. How would your parents feel if you died out here tonight? Now put the cloak on," the woman demanded. She flourished the cloak and made to drape it over Uric's shoulders.

            "No!" Uric held out his hand, there was a flash of light and the cloak disappeared. The woman muttered some rather nasty curses, then calmed down and glared at Uric.

            "I don't know who taught you to banish things, but they have just made my job a lot harder." She stared out at the forest for a moment, deep in thought, than focused on the children in front of her. The horn blew again. It was much closer.

            "Alright. Here's what we do," she said. "Don't run, that just excites the Hunt. We stay here and wait for him to come. When he does, let me do the talking. The worst thing we could do right now is insult him."

            "What do you mean by him?" asked Louis. He looked calm, though his hands were white where they clutched at his wand.

            "The Hunter. The dogs are under his control, therefore we need to reason with him. It shouldn't be too hard." She sounded like she was trying to convince herself. A howl sounded in front of them. 

            A huge black dog bounded into view. Its eyes glowed red and its paws were red as well, as if it had been walking in blood. Reddish foam lined its lips and Louis backed slowly away. The dog focused on them with eyes full of cunning and let loose a long, deep howl. Mena made to run, but the woman put a hand on her shoulder. With a snarl another dog bounded out of the woods behind them, and was joined by two more on either side. They were effectively trapped within the little clearing they had stopped in. 

            Uric laughed then, and approached one of the dogs, hand out for it to smell. He had never seen a dog like this and wondered what its coat felt like, not to mention what its opinion was on the enchantment of muggle objects. He was jerked backward just before it snapped his hand off.

            "Uric!" The woman nearly growled at him. "Just stand in the middle of the clearing and don't do anything. Okay?"

            "Okay," said Uric in a subdued voice. The doggie wasn't being very friendly. 

            A man rode into the clearing and even the trees seemed to lean away from him. He was huge and dressed all in black. He sat upon a black horse with red eyes and red hoofs. Its shaggy mane matched the hair of its master. He rode the horse deeper into the clearing and they could smell the faint smell of decay and old blood. Involuntarily, they took a step back. With a flourish of his cloak, he dismounted and spoke to his nearest hound.

            "How goes the Hunt?" His voice was layered in tones, giving it an echoing, inhuman quality. The hound growled a response and the man nodded his head at it. He turned to face them, and the woman pushed herself to the front of their little group. His eyes were as red as his dogs, and looked at them with an alien amusement. "When the prey stands still, it makes for poor sport."

            "We are not your prey. There are far more evil creatures in the forest tonight," the woman said, her voice faltering a little under the Hunter's gaze. 

            "I hunt where I will and all creatures of this world are my prey."

            "You hunt well, but as you said, we are poor sport. We are not even enough to feed your hounds," said the woman, gesturing at the hounds surrounding them. 

            "It is long since they have had human meat and the blood of wizards is tasty." 

            "We could fight you." She sounded desperate.

            "You would lose. None may stand against the Hunt," said the Hunter in what was almost a growl. She opened her mouth to respond, but Uric pushed his way past her. He stood looking up at the huge man who smelled of blood and smoke.

            "Please, Sir. Have you seen Simon?" he asked. The Hunter looked confused. People pleaded with him for their lives. They did not ask obtuse questions.

            "Uric!" yelled the woman, but the Hunter waved his hand and she was frozen in place.

            "Who is this Simon?" he asked. 

            "He's my bird-lizard and he's lost out here. I have to get him back before he gets eaten." The Hunter began to laugh. 

            "It is I and my hounds who devour things in this forest tonight!" he crowed. Mena stepped forward then, knowing he would probably kill them anyway so she might as well act.

            "Please. How would you feel if one of your hounds was lost?" she pleaded. The Hunter stared at her, than turned to look at his precious hounds for a long moment. Eventually, he turned back to them and they saw he had reached a decision. He reached out a huge hand to ruffle Uric's hair.

            "Worry not, child. The Hunt shall find this Simon for you, and we shall be off to better hunting grounds. Time grows short and we must find tastier prey ere the dawn."

            "Thank you," said the three of them. The Hunter shook his head and smiled a sad smile at them. It looked strange when paired with his glowing, otherworldly eyes. 

            "I grow weary of this place. The Hunt shall not ride here again." He unfroze their protector then mounted his horse. The horse reared and a sudden wind caused his cloak to billow out behind him. "Farewell children. You have tamed the Hunter for the night, but do not think I will spare you should you cross my path again." He smiled a wicked smile at them. Then he lifted a black horn, gilded in silver to his lips and sounded it. The sound echoed across the forest as he bounded off, his hounds padding silently after him.

            There little group stood frozen on the spot, except for Uric who was cheerfully waving good bye to the nice man in black.

*****

            Morning came and a deep orange kneazle made its way along the edge of the forest. It stopped nearly opposite the castle and walked into the trees. In a clearing not too deeply in, it found three students and one woman fast asleep on the forest floor. It recognised one of them and hurried over to nudge at the light brown-haired boy. 

            "Hmmm," Uric yawned and focused on the creature in front of him. "Hello Beckett. How are you this morning?" The kneazle meowed at him. "We're fine. Look, even Simon is." The boy held a rather ragged looking bird-lizard right in Beckett's face. Beckett sneezed when one of the feathers tickled his sensitive nose. He shook his head at the boy, than turned and ran out of the forest, intent on finding his master. Uric didn't notice, because he was too busy telling Simon all the excitement he had missed the night before. 

            "That's why you shouldn't run away, Simon. You miss all the fun things, like the really cute doggies." Simon just chirped at him. "It's okay though. We'll go have our own adventure tomorrow night." 

            "You will not, because you won't be in this school tomorrow," said a voice Uric knew very well. Professor Stewart strode purposely across the clearing and surveyed it with distaste. 

            "Good morning, Sir," said Uric in a cheerful voice. 

            "A good morning for me, but not for you. Mrs. Kurze has been informed of your delinquency and is waiting for you and your companions in her office. Who is this?" He gestured toward the prone form of their protector. 

            "A woman," said Uric, failing to notice that Professor Stewart was beginning to look very angry. 

            "The other teachers may tolerate your fresh answers, but I will not. If I didn't know Mrs. Kurze was going to expel you, I would assign you detention. Wake them up and go to Mrs. Kurze's office. You should know the way." He shook his head in disgust, than headed back towards the castle. Louis waited until he was gone before sitting up.

            "He probably doesn't want to miss breakfast, the fat git," he said.

            "You're probably right about that, but that doesn't mean you should be insulting him," said a gruff voice. Louis turned to see Dasha sitting on a nearby log, her long red braid glinting in the sunlight.

            "He's going to get us expelled today. So you'll excuse me if I'm not feeling very charitable towards him at the moment," he responded rather irritably. Mena sat up, than put her hands around her knees. She looked up at them, her face full of worry.

            "I don't want to be expelled," she said in a small voice. If she went home now, all she could expect was to be taught to sew by her mother and married off to the baker's son, or some other mundane future. At Hogwarts, she had a chance to escape that, but not if she was expelled before she learnt anything. Louis was looking at her a little sadly.

            "We did disobey the rules about going into the Forbidden Forest. She is within her rights to expel us." He paused. "It's a good thing I wrote out a will because my father's going to kill me." 

            "I'll talk to her," said their protector. She looked very determined. 

            "Well, thank you, but I don't think it's going to help," said Louis. The woman ignored him and turned to Dasha.

            "May I use a quill and some parchment?" Dasha gave the woman a hard look before she agreed. They all followed her to the groundskeeper's cottage. There the woman wrote a short note on a parchment, then marched determinedly up to the castle. The three of them followed, curious about what a letter would do to save them. Once they entered, the woman turned to go up one of the side staircases.

            "That's not the way to Mrs. Kurze's office," said Mena helpfully. The woman looked at her.

            "I know. We need to send this letter first. Just follow me. We'll tell her it took awhile for you to wake me up when she asks why you're late." The three of them looked at each other and Louis shrugged. They followed her up the stairs to the owlrey, Uric still talking softly to Simon. The woman sent off her letter, though none of them could see to whom it was addressed. She headed for the door and they followed her reluctantly to Mrs. Kurze's office.

*****

My essays are done! Not that it effected this story too much. I've had parts of these last two chapters written since January believe it or not. Next chapter: Mrs. Kurze's office, among other things…

Thank you to all my reviewers: AniMourner, rabbit, Tidmag, Em, Chad-Catsmeat, Ryven, Giesbrecht, gjegje, Gred Weasley, Ozma, TatraMegami, aurielo, Kath, Mad Potter and Alchemine. 

AniMourner: The Wild Hunt is actually a rather common legend in different parts of the world. Though it is more often found in Scandinavian countries, there are myths of it in Britain. My original inspiration for the idea came from a scene in Susan Cooper's, The Dark is Rising sequence, though I can barely remember it these days:) My additional research on the Wild Hunt was obtained from here: http://vinland.org/heathen/mt/wildhunt.html This is probably the most comprehensive article on the subject I could find, if you are interested.

Rabbit: No, Varys didn't know about the Wild Hunt. He doesn't have a problem with Simon getting hurt, but he would draw the line at putting someone else in physical danger like that. He was just hoping that Uric would be caught and expelled.

Chad-Catsmeat: I have to admit that the title of this story is misleading. When I started out, the Wild Hunt was the focus of the story, but now the focus of the plot is really on the mysterious woman and the masked wizards. I didn't want to change the title in the middle of the story however, so I've left it as it was despite the change of emphasis. Uric's year is not over yet. And yes, there will be a sequel.

Gred Weasley: I hope I do well on the essay too:)

Aurielo: The sequel will be set in Uric's seventh year (I'd really like to do all seven of his years but I just don't have the time, not to mention it's a lot harder than it looks to think of year spanning plot lines…) So far, the sequel has demons in it, a trip to France, relationships (probably not for Uric, but we'll see where it goes…) and a closer look a Louis' family. I'm still debating what the main plot line will be. 

As for historical differences, I am an archaeology student, so historical accuracy tends to be important to me. In fact, I'm downright anal about it, so there was a lot of thinking behind my choosing to set the story in 1680 (since Rowling has never mentioned when Uric lived). I deliberately chose a time period when nothing of historical importance was happening in Britain so that the muggles and their wars wouldn't interfere with the story. The reason why Hogwarts is so similar in some ways to present day Hogwarts is because I view the wizarding world as a largely stagnant society (fitting for a people who live twice as long as their muggle counterparts). This means that their fashions are centuries out of date and their still using outdated systems and ideas (just look at the justice system in Harry's time). Uric's world is working towards a great change since we all know that the Council can't last forever, but even that is causing a large amount of trouble, so it makes sense that a lot of things in Uric's time haven't been changed in later years. 

Please review. Speculations and questions welcome:)


	16. Conversations

Chapter 16: Conversations

            Snuggly opened as soon as Uric approached. He grinned and petted the gargoyle's head before going up the stairs. Behind him, Louis shook his head, while the woman and Mena stared. 

            They entered the office, their feet sinking deep into the plush carpet. A fire was burning in the nearby hearth. Uric could see the faint shadows from the flames flickering across the Headmistress' face as she sat behind her desk looking off into the distance. Mr. Kurze was standing in the corner, attempting to look unobtrusive. Uric grinned and waved madly at him. 

            "Olman," said the Headmistress. "Your presence here is unnecessary." Mr. Kurze glanced between Uric and his wife. He stood up slightly straighter and looked her in the eye. 

            "I'd like to stay, Carolyn," he said firmly. The Headmistress looked puzzled for a moment, but seemed to dismiss his comment from her mind.

            "Very well," she said, but her grey eyes were already focused on Uric and his companions. She gave them each a hard, evaluating stare. Louis decided he would rather be back with the Hunter about to be eaten. 

            Uric frowned at Headmistress Kurze. She was giving him that look again that made him so uncomfortable. It really wasn't very nice. 

            "Well, Mr. Beaufolle. What did I tell you would happen if you got in trouble again?" she asked. Uric thought really hard.

            "That I'd be forced to swim naked across a tub of marmalade?" he guessed. Mrs. Kurze's expression got even harder.

            "Try again," she practically spit out. Uric became aware that behind him, Louis was chanting the word 'expelled' under his breath.

            "Expelled?" said Uric.

            "Very good, Mr. Beaufolle." Her gaze once again swept over his companions. "And I see you've brought some others down with you. Mr. Iliescu, what will your father say?" Uric glanced behind him to see Louis looking very contrite. Uric wondered if the dark-haired boy was going to cry now. 

            "I'm sorry, Headmistress," said Louis in a pitiful voice. Mrs. Kurze nodded to herself. 

            "As well you should be," she said, than turned her attention to Mena. Before Mrs. Kurze could scold her however, the woman stepped forward. She looked very upset.

            "You can't expel these children just for being children!" she exclaimed passionately. The Headmistress looked her over.

            "I assume you are this mysterious witch who my husband has been complaining about?" She seemed very annoyed that the woman actually existed. Uric wondered if Mr. Kurze had told her about the badgers. 

            "That's her," confirmed Mr. Kurze from his corner. The Headmistress looked over at him.

            "Thank you, Olman." She sounded surprised that he was still there. 

            "My name is Hollis Havenward. I work for the Australian branch of _Corpus Patronus," said the woman. Mena looked puzzled._

            "What does that mean?" she asked. 

            "She's a bodyguard. _Corpus Patronus is supposed to be one of the best for personal protection," explained Louis, forgetting that he was supposed to be looking contrite. "Didn't you say Mr. Beaufolle hired you?" he asked. Miss. Havenward nodded. Headmistress Kurze didn't seem impressed however._

            "Perhaps you are a bodyguard out there, but in Hogwarts you are just an interloper who has no say in the workings of this school. Uric and his co-conspirators will be punished as I see fit," said the Headmistress. She sounded very pleased with herself. She paused, and her look softened slightly as she regarded Louis and Mena. "I am willing to give second chances to those who understand the error of their ways." She obviously didn't think Uric was worthy of being given a second (or in this case, third) chance. 

            Mena made a face at Mrs. Kurze's comments once she realized what the Headmistress was implying. She wasn't going to leave Uric alone in order to escape punishment. She opened her mouth to say this, but was forced to close it again to prevent herself from crying out in pain. Louis had ground his foot down hard on hers. 

            They would have gotten into a fight at that point, but Uric had somehow wandered to the other side of the office while Headmistress Kurze was talking. A brilliant light filled the room.  

There was a moment of, well, oddness. Mr. Kurze could have sworn he saw a squirrel in bloomers run quickly across the room to perch chattering on Mrs. Kurze's shoulder. Mena watched as the number of Urics multiplied into infinity to fill up the office, than vanished as quickly as they had come. Mrs. Kurze refused to even acknowledge the fact that the children in front of her had morphed into talking tomatoes. Miss. Havenward imagined that she was an elephant sitting on a sock the size of the whole world, and Louis wisely kept his eyes shut. 

The moment ended. Louis cautiously opened his eyes to find everyone blinking. Mrs. Kurze was eying him very suspiciously, while Mena was looking around wildly. He noticed that Mr. Kurze was chuckling to himself in the corner. Meanwhile, Miss. Havenward looked like she had been hit with a stunning spell. Now where was Uric? 

Ignoring the Headmistress he walked past her to the other side of the office. Collapsed half way behind her desk was Uric. It looked like he was asleep, except for one little thing. His robes were now inside out. The seams of the robe stood out and Louis could no longer see Uric's Hufflepuff badge. Simon was cradled in his hands and chirping softly. 

"Uric," Louis said urgently. Uric was just sleeping right? Simon's chirping grew more insistent. "Uric! Wake up!" He finally stirred. Simon squawked as he was pressed too tightly. Uric opened one eye.

"Chirp?" he said. Simon eagerly responded with a barrage of chirps that Uric listened to without getting up. 

"What did you touch?" demanded the Headmistress in a cold voice. Louis looked behind him and blanched. Mrs. Kurze towered over them and she looked ready to kill. 

"Chirp. Chirp," said Uric. 

"Mr. Beaufolle, if you do not start speaking English at this very moment…" she trailed off. Louis reflected that she probably couldn't think of a punishment worse than expulsion. Uric stared hard at Headmistress Kurze. She didn't seem happy with him. Simon chirped again. 

"I'm sorry," he said, hoping that he had chosen the right thing to say. 

"That won't get you anywhere this time. What did you touch?" she asked in a sharp voice. Uric suddenly felt cold. He looked at the low case behind the Headmistress' desk. It was full of strange and interesting knick knacks. 

A tiny model of a dragon paced back and forth between a model of a castle that had a little sun and moon spinning around it, and an odd stone that seemed to change shape when you weren't looking at it. A strange box with glowing orange runes sat next to a beautiful magenta flower, frozen forever in time. Spread in between these things were smaller muggle objects like keys, a compass and thimbles. It was strange to think of the Headmistress keeping those sort of things on her shelf. 

"I touched everything," said Uric slowly. He couldn't remember the last few minutes. However, that wasn't too unusual for him. "The dragon bit me." He held up his finger, and they could see the blood welling up from a small gash. 

"That doesn't explain your clothes being inside out," pointed out Louis. Uric looked down at himself. Where was his badger? He did a panicky search of his robes and finally found the badge in the left pocket of his robes. He sighed in relief. A look up at Mrs. Kurze revealed that her mouth was pressed into a thin, hard line. 

"I do not know what just happened in here," she said. "But if I find out that you were behind it Mr. Beaufolle-"

"You will give him detention and send him on his way," said a man's voice. 

"Father!" exclaimed Uric, jumping to his feet. Everyone else looked around to see where the voice was coming from. Uric headed unerringly towards the fireplace. His father's head was hovering in the flames. His dark hair and beard contrasted strongly with the brilliant fire. 

"Hello, Father. How are you? How is mother? Do you know what would happen if someone flooing crashed into your neck, or is that even possible?" said Uric in a rush. Mr. Beaufolle regarded his son with resigned amusement. 

"Both your mother and I are fine, and I'll send you a book on floo travel later," he said. He smiled at his son. "I'm glad you are okay as well. I hear you had some excitement?" He sounded puzzled, and perhaps a touch angry. Uric nodded solemnly.

"Simon got lost in the forest and we had to rescue him." 

"Among other things," added in Miss. Havenward. 

"I expect a full report in my hands by noon," said Mr. Beaufolle in a commanding tone, staring straight at the woman. The good humour he had shown towards Uric had disappeared from his face. Miss. Havenward straightened.

"Yes, Sir," she said. Mr. Beaufolle seemed to think the matter was settled, and turned his attention to Headmistress Kurze. She had been watching Mr. Beaufolle with an annoyed expression, but knew better than to interrupt the man while he was talking with his son and subordinate. He was on the Council after all. 

"Headmistress Kurze, I have heard some disturbing rumours regarding my son." Louis and Mena took this opportunity to cross the room and join Uric.

"I wonder what rumours he means?" whispered Mena. The two adults continued to talk about the school and Uric, but they didn't really seem to be saying anything. 

"Is it the one about the fish, the goblin and the windmill? Because that wasn't me," said Uric. They both stared at him.

"Never mind, Uric," said Louis, keeping his voice low. "He's talking about you being expelled. Mrs. Kurze just refuses to admit it because she knows he will protest. Now that he is here, she isn't so sure about her authority." 

"So Uric might be okay?" asked Mena. 

"Hopefully all of us will be okay." Louis peered at what he could see of Mr. Beaufolle. "I don't think that Uric's father will let him be expelled." Mr. Beaufolle suddenly turned his head to talk to Uric.

"What did Headmistress Kurze say was your punishment for tonight?" he asked. Mrs. Kurze looked anxious. "This is important, Uric. Concentrate." Uric nodded and thought hard.

"She said she would expel me," he said after a long silence. Mr. Beaufolle gave the Headmistress a triumphant look. She could have denied Miss. Havenward's word or the other students, but she wouldn't dare tell him his son was a liar to his face. She gave Uric a furious look, than visibly composed herself. 

"Uric will not be expelled," she said calmly, though her hands were trembling. "However, he and his friends will serve detention with Professor Stewart for the next week." Mena gasped in dismay. Uric just wondered if he would have to run around the castle again. Professor Stewart had been making him run inside ever since the other professors refused to let him serve detentions with them. Mr. Beaufolle nodded.

"That is acceptable." He glanced at Uric and seemed to remember something. "Now that she has been revealed, Miss Havenward will accompany Uric at all times. For his own protection." 

"No she will not. There is no reason for your son to have an escort!" The Headmistress looked scandalized. Mr. Beaufolle glared at her.

"I have many enemies, Headmistress Kurze. Until this whole abolition business blows over Uric is not safe. You have already shown that you can not adequately protect him," he said. 

"I may not be able to," she admitted, though not without difficulty. "But Hogwarts will keep him safe. The wards here are centuries old and well maintained."

"As are some other things," murmured Louis.

            The Headmistress and Uric's father stared hard at each other. Uric nearly clapped his hands in glee. He loved staring contests! And they happened around him so often for some reason. 

            "If anything happens to my son, I will hold you personally responsible Mrs. Kurze," said Uric's father in his strictest, I'm-on-the-Council-and-will-be-obeyed tones. 

            "I refuse to let your son go around with a personal servant, Mr. Beaufolle," said Mrs. Kurze primly. 

            "Servant!" exclaimed Miss. Havenward. "I'm a trained and certified bodyguard, not a bloody maid!" 

            "I feel it would distract the students from their studies for Uric to be followed around day and night by another adult. Not to mention it would raise the issue of favouritism," said Mrs. Kurze. "You're bodyguard will not be allowed in here. Uric is perfectly safe so long as he remains within these walls." 

            "Well. I can't remain within the walls," said Uric into the beginnings of another staring war. "I don't fit. The badgers live there though," he said brightly. "And the ghosts like to pass through as well." Everyone stared at him, though he could see Mr. Kurze hiding a smile behind his hand in the corner. Mr. Beaufolle shook his head.

            "Very well, Headmistress Kurze. I will leave him in your care, though Miss. Havenward will be staying around the castle to provide extra protection. You will not see her," he said before the Headmistress could protest the arrangement. "Just remember that I know how to expel someone as well." He turned to Uric. "Goodbye Uric. Don't leave the castle again until I come to pick you up. No matter what. Understand?" Uric nodded. "Good." He said his goodbyes, than disappeared into the flames. 

            The Headmistress surveyed them with distaste. "Olman, would you please escort Miss. Havenward out of the castle. You three may go to breakfast. Report to Professor Stewart after classes for your detention." She rubbed her forehead as if she were in pain. Everyone left as quickly as possible, though the first out the door was Mr. Kurze. 

            Uric, Louis and Mena followed the adults down the stairs and out past the gargoyle. They were very quiet. Uric stopped walking and reached into his pocket. He took out a stone he had placed there a very long time ago. With a tap of his wand, he transfigured it into a tiny model of a duck. He triumphantly held it up to show Mena and Louis.

            "Duck!" he said. Mena sighed.

            "Yes, Uric. A duck. Can we go to breakfast now?"

*****

Sorry about the wait. This chapter decided it wanted to be written really slowly…

Thanks to all my reviewers: Crydywn, TatraMegami, Em, Gemin16, Gred Weasley, Tess, Tidmag the Hufflepuff, AniMourner, Ozma, gjegje, J-kid, Lady Knight of Kennan, Leevee of Team Socket.

Tidmag the Hufflepuff: Are you sure cheerios won't work? I can get different kinds…Seriously though, it'll take me awhile to write the sequel so no worries about me leaving off Uric for awhile, and who says I can't write shorter Uric stories either?

AniMourner: Ah yes, I did notice the email. I remember thinking how neat the email was a long time ago. I attempted to reread the whole dark is rising sequence this Christmas, but only made it through the first two before I had to go back to university, so I haven't read Silver on the Tree for about six years now. We are sort of close to the end but not all the way there yet. I am thinking about four more chapters to this story, but I could be wrong…

Gjegje: There won't be any more of the Hunter in this story. He's meant to be mysterious and exciting. (Think Tom Bombadil from Tolkien or Bjorn from the Hobbit for that matter…They're interesting because their ancient and mysterious.) All I can suggest, if you want more, is to read some of the myths about the Wild Hunt, or to read the Dark is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper, which has a version of the Wild Hunt in it as well.

Lady Knight of Kennan: Thanks about the essays (They're just papers I write in university for my classes.) I did really well on all of them. 

Leevee of Team Socket: Most of Uric's comments come right from my subconscious. I just pick a subject out of my mind, make sure I haven't done it before in the story, than let Uric expound upon it. (I think everyone should seriously consider the possibility of silverware ruling the world;)

Please review. I love to know what everyone thinks, and if anyone still wants to be added to the update list let me know:)


	17. Detentions and Ducks

Chapter 17: Detentions and Ducks

            "This has to be the worst detention I've ever had," said Mena. She threw her quill down in disgust. "Couldn't he have had us scrubbing out cauldrons or something?"

            "Isn't this the only detention you've ever had?" asked Uric curiously. He was still diligently copying every nine-lettered word out of an ancient tome. Louis had fallen asleep over his own book, but he was supposed to be copying every word with three syllables. Mena had been told to copy every word ending in 'y'. She was getting very sick of the word 'verily'. 

            "Well, yes," she said, blushing a little as she remembered Uric taking the blame for what should rightfully have been her first detention. "We should probably wake up Louis," she said to change the subject. Uric happily prodded Louis with his quill. The dark-haired boy awoke with a yawn.

            "Is it that time already?" he asked.

            "Not really," responded Uric. "Since time is purely subjective, it is either never 'that time' or always 'that time'." He copied down another word. 

            "You've been reading the advanced textbooks again haven't you?" asked Louis dryly before returning to his own copying.

            A few minutes later, Professor Stewart entered the room. He had left them to their work a couple of hours before. Varys Nachleen trailed behind him. The Ravenclaw took an involuntary step back from the force of the glares he was getting from Mena and Louis. It was his fault that they were in here. Uric just regarded him with a mild expression that was somehow even more disconcerting. 

            Professor Stewart didn't notice the glares. He collected their rolls of parchment and casually looked them over. "A little short, Louis," he said before ripping them into tiny pieces that piled up on his desk. Mena could feel the tears welling up in her eyes, and angrily held them back. There was something disturbing about having all your hard work ripped up for the fifth day in a row. Stewart casually incinerated the pile before dismissing them for the day. 

            They left but Mena grabbed Uric's arm before he could wander off and pulled him against the wall. Louis stopped as well, realizing what she was up to. With Mena's hand over Uric's mouth, they listened intently to the conversation inside Professor Stewart's classroom.

            "-studies going, Varys?" asked Professor Stewart.

            "Very well, Sir," said Varys. "It would be really helpful if I could have a pass to the Restricted Section, Professor." Varys sounded like he was pleading. 

            "We've been over this countless times. First-years are not allowed in the Restricted Section. Should you wish to use the library, you must do so on your own time. Now if that's the only reason you wanted to talk-"

            "Excuse me, Sir, but conducting my studies on my own time has been problematic," said Varys stiffly.

            "Yes. I remember having my sleep disturbed on Hallowe'en," said Stewart drily. Mena's eyes widened. "Surely you've found a way around the problem by now?" 

            "I have taken precautions," said Varys reluctantly. "But I can't be sure of their effectiveness if Uric Beaufolle and his friends are going to be wandering around the castle at all hours."

            "Mr. Beaufolle wanders the castle? After curfew?" Professor Stewart sounded excited. 

            "He was there on Hallowe'en, and I've seen him a few other times, though I doubt he's seen me," said Varys. Uric made some noise against Mena's hand, but she only pressed it tighter against his mouth.

            "If you see him again, inform me immediately. Not even his father will be able to protect him if he's caught in such an infraction of the rules again," said Professor Stewart triumphantly. There was a pause, and Mena could just picture the gloating looks on their faces. 

            "Is that all you wanted Varys?" asked Professor Stewart solicitously. 

            "Yes, Sir," Varys replied. Mena and Louis grabbed Uric's arms and pulled him down the corridor. They all crowded into a tiny alcove. There was a statue of a centaur rearing up on its hind legs inside, but it wasn't enough to hide them if someone walked by. Varys' footsteps came closer.

            "Can you hide us, Uric?" Louis hissed in his ear. Uric thought about it for a moment. Hide. Where had he heard that word before?

            "_Armozoalgama," he said, and flourished his wand. A heavy feeling of magic settled upon them. Mena could feel her flesh prickling. What had Uric done? She tried to open her mouth and ask, but found she couldn't. Her eyes wouldn't move either, but after she relaxed for a moment, she found she could see Louis out of the corner of her eye. If she had had a mouth to do it with, she would have gasped. _

            Louis was frozen where he had been crouching as a crude statue, complete with patches of lichen. He looked like he had been out in the weather too long. If she hadn't known it was Louis, she would never have recognized him. Mena began to panic. What if they were stuck this way?

            Varys walked past. He didn't spare a glance for the collection of statues in the alcove to his right. If he had looked closer, he would have seen the statues of three students and a centaur. Two of the students were crouched against the wall, while the third was in the process of playing peek-a-boo with the centaur. 

*****

            A few hours later, one of the statues blinked. Ten minutes later, it blinked again. Slowly they came to life. After half an hour, Mena was able to express her opinion.

            "Uric. I'm going to kill you!" Her words were slurred since some of her tongue was still made of stone. 

            "Why?" he asked. She turned her neck stiffly to see that he had his arms up to play some sort of game with the centaur.

            "You turned us into statues!" she exclaimed. Her words didn't slur this time. 

            "I doubt he noticed," said Louis, straightening ever so slowly from his crouch. His robes still had grey patches from where they were stone. 

            "What would have happened if we hadn't changed back?" asked Mena, calming down a little.

            "We would have stayed statues forever, or at least until someone noticed Uric playing with the centaur," said Louis. "Uric, you can put your arms down now. They aren't stone anymore." Uric obediently lowered his arms. Mena discovered that her arms were free as well, and leant over to smack Uric upside the head before toppling over. Her knees, unfortunately, were still stone. She hit Uric, who hit the centaur, who hit the floor with a loud thump. Louis started laughing. 

            Mena took the time to glare at him before un-entangling herself from Uric. Louis ignored her, but calmed down enough to ask Uric a question. 

            "Why statues, Uric?" he asked. Uric answered promptly for once. 

            "When Gustav Holmstein was trying to hide from the vampires who were after him, he turned himself into a statue and they passed him by," he explained. Louis nodded his understanding. Mena gave them an impatient look. 

            "What time is it?" she asked. It was hard to keep track of something like that when you were a statue. 

            "One twenty-three in the morning," said Uric. "And thirty-seven seconds. Thirty--eight seconds. Thirty-" Mena hit him. 

            "We need to get back to our Common Rooms," she said as if nothing had happened. "It's much too late." She headed off down the corridor. Uric made to follow her, but Louis held him back for a moment.

            "Isn't there a statue of Gustav Holmstein that can still be found in Romania to this day?" he asked. Uric nodded solemnly. Louis sighed.

            "Don't ever tell Mena that, Uric," he said and followed Mena down the corridor.

*****

            Transfiguration was one of Uric's favourite classes. He would spend the first few minutes performing whatever task Professor Leonard had assigned (and that Mena had reminded him of) before he was left to his own devices. He could let his mind wander, or read, or on one day when Professor Leonard was especially distracted, perform an African rain dance. 

Today, Professor Leonard poured himself a cup of tea from an intricately shaped tea kettle before turning it into a turtle. Uric wondered what part of the turtle the tea had become. Professor Leonard explained the transformation and demonstrated it one more time before letting them try themselves. Uric stared blankly at the tea kettle until Mena nudged him. 

"Just get on with it," she whispered before returning to her own tea kettle, which was taking on a muddy-greenish colour. Uric reluctantly lifted his wand. He _liked tea kettles. He considered letting all the kettles free into the world, but Professor Leonard had been very angry when he had let all those pats of butter go last month. He hadn't taken Uric's word that they really did not want to be bumblebees. _

Uric concentrated a little, and waved his wand. A turtle appeared on the table, flapping its flippers against the table top. He petted it on the head. A glance at Mena revealed that she was still involved in her transfiguration. He relaxed in his seat and drifted off into another world where no one was allowed to say the word 'prodigious'. Uric was amazed that anyone could carry on a full conversation without that word, but somehow they managed it. Gradually he became aware of a curious droning voice. 

"Any resident of the family antidae is known as a duck," said the voice. Uric looked around curiously. Where was the voice coming from? "They are known by their flat, broad bills, webbed feet and a variety of multi-coloured plumage." Uric nodded his understanding. "Now, what is it you see in this picture?" The room sounded very quiet to Uric and he frowned. He couldn't see any picture. He decided to hazard a guess. 

            "Ducks?" he said, but the voice didn't respond. The whole class fell silent as a grin of joy spread itself across Professor Leonard's face. 

            "Ducks," he said happily. "Ducks!" And with a wave of his wand, all the tea kettles they had turned into turtles were ducks, in fact, all the tea kettles that _hadn't been turned into turtles were ducks as well. The class gawked as the ducks began quacking softly and exploring the desks in front of them. Professor Leonard strode to the front of the room and stood facing them. "Let's talk about ducks," he said with a smile. Someone in the back of the room whimpered. _

            Meanwhile, Uric tuned out the rambling teacher and studied the duck in front of him. It was one of those brown ducks that he saw occasionally. "Hello Mr. Duck. My name's Uric. What's yours?" The duck quacked at him and Uric cocked his head to one side. "Oh. You're a Miss. Sorry about that. You wouldn't happen to know where that voice went?" The duck just looked at him. 

            Mena was looking at him too. She was glancing between him and the duck as if deciding which to curse first. 

*****

            The first-year Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws filed wearily out of Transfiguration nearly an hour later. Some of them still had duck feathers stuck to their robes. 

            "Brilliant move, Uric," said Alponius Nester in an angry tone. Professor Leonard had compared him to Mandarin duck and he had not been pleased. 

"Leave him alone, Al," said Justine softly. She glanced at Varys Nachleen and the others who had stopped just outside the door. "I'm sure he had a good reason for mentioning ducks." Mena stared incredulously at the other girl. Justine may have been pretty, but she obviously wasn't too bright.

"He should have remembered after the last time," insisted Al. One of the Ravenclaw first-years, Icarus Jabber, had been the unfortunate soul who mentioned ducks in their first month in Professor Leonard's class. All he had asked about was the potential of changing dough into something other than a dog, and then they had been trapped while the topic of ducks was discussed in excruciating detail. Mena was sure that at least some of the Ravenclaws had found Professor Leonard's comprehensive knowledge of ducks interesting, but none of them were desperate enough to mention them to him again. 

"Let's just forget about it," said Neil McGowan. "Uric's obviously insane, and we need to get to Defense Against the Dark Arts." Everyone nodded and they headed off to class. 

Mena was a bit startled when she was shoved from behind. She turned around to admonish the clumsy oaf who had run into her, but only saw the back of Louis' head. She thought for a moment. Had she felt something else? She placed her hand in her pocket. There was a small piece of parchment. After a quick look to make sure Uric wasn't wandering off, she read it.

            _Library after dinner.__ Bring Uric. Discuss plans about Mr. Perfect._

            She shook her head. She still didn't understand why Louis was so insistent on secrecy about their friendship. Louis had even told the other Slytherins that he was in detention for a totally different reason than Uric and Mena. It all seemed rather ridiculous to her. She crumpled the parchment up and placed it back in her pocket. At least it looked like they were finally going to get revenge on Varys Nachleen.

*****

Armozo is Greek for "to become" and algama means "statue". Chapters 1-5 have now been revised. Uric now has a couple more odd thoughts in the first chapter, and the dialogue in those chapters now properly identifies who is talking. I'll be revising the rest soon. I also, through much trial and error, managed to get the first chapter of this fic (well, chapters 1 and 2 since they made me combine them) up on Schnoogle.com. *Ariana is very pleased with herself*

Thanks to all my reviewers: Gred Weasley, Mistri, Ozma, Googoo4you, Em, Thistlemeg, Crydwyn, Gemin16, Lady Knight of Kennan, gjegje, AniMourner, Chad-Catsmeat, Sailor Book/Water Mistress, Tidmag, and Mad Potter.

Mistri: That's a good question. Why does Uric get weirder? I think I'll refer you to the badgers for that one…

Ozma: The Kurzes do have a rather odd relationship don't they? I'm glad you liked Hollis. It can be very hard to make a character likeable when she's only in a few scenes and doesn't even have a line until chapter 10. Uric did trigger the moment of oddness, but he doesn't know what happened since he can't remember.

Googoo4you: I'll be writing a full story detailing Uric's seventh year at Hogwarts. Other short stories might cover some of his earlier years, though the only idea I have in mind at the moment is a story about Uric visiting Mena in London during the summer of their fifth year. 

Thistlemeg: The 'abolition business' comment is referring to the attempt to shut down the Council and replace it with a ministry. Louis explained the whole business in detail in chapter 12.

Crydwyn: Yes, I've read Farside. I have about eight of his cartoons (torn from a calendar) up on my bulletin board atm. Ducks have always been pretty nefarious creatures in my opinion;) The moment of oddness does have significance, and it doesn't…I can't really get any more clearer than that without giving it away:)

Gemin16: Yeah! A Louis fan! After Uric, he's probably my favourite character to write. 

Lady Knight of Kennan: I'm working on the assumption that Uric got the nickname "the Oddball" sometime after his school years. I may do a story on it one day, if I can think of a proper incident to write about. 

AniMourner: Mr. Beaufolle is very strict at most times, though he has a soft spot for his family. It's largely because of him that Uric actually does listen to orders…most of the time. 

Tidmag: It's been so long since I've seen Winnie the Pooh that I can't even remember what his character is like, so you could be right. I'm sure there is a room in Hogwarts where all the lost (left) socks go, though they must be lonely without their mates. 

A bit of reassurance for everyone: Those of you who read my other stories know that I have started another story on ff.net. I just want to let you all know that Uric is my first priority. I love writing him and his world. Any delays you see in chapters, where I perhaps put up other chapters of other stories is not because I'm ignoring Uric…it's because I'm sitting in front of the computer and staring at a blank screen and wondering just what Uric is going to do next. Writing Intersections, or Sands of Time is not effortless, but it's very easy compared to writing Uric. I write those stories when I need a break from thinking like Uric. So basically, it would take me the same amount of time to write a new chapter of Uric with or without me having other stories I was updating. Hope this reassures everyone.

Please review. Encouragement helps me write:)


	18. Plans Awry

Chapter 18: Plans Awry

            Louis watched Mena frown in concentration as she considered the feasibility of his plan. The hours they spent as statues the night before had driven him to the edge of distraction. It was only by focusing on developing a plan to get even with Varys that he was able to keep his composure throughout the ordeal. Not that anyone would have noticed if he lost his composure while he was frozen in stone, but he would have been embarrassed if he had panicked. 

            Mena nodded decisively. She looked up at him. "Let's do it," she said. "Though we should use polyjuice potion."

            "We're not using polyjuice potion," said Louis. 

            "Polyjuice…" said Mena. Her eyes had a far away look, as if she were already imagining Varys' reaction.

            "We're not using polyjuice," insisted Louis, glaring at her in annoyance. 

            "It would be brilliant," she said, ignoring his protest. "Uric could brew it and we would help." Louis sighed.

            "First, we don't need the potion! Second, the ingredients would be impossible for us to get, and third, it takes over a month to brew. Where in the world did you hear about polyjuice potion anyway? They invented it last year," said Louis. Mena coloured.

            "Professor Darshan told me about it while I was helping him," she said. The Potion's professor always chose one student at the end of the day to help him clean up. It was an easy job, and the professor gave away a ridiculous amount of points to his helper's house, so there were many students vying for the opportunity. Just this week, Mena had earned the honour of being the first student to be asked to help Professor Darshan a second time. Louis wondered if this explained her sudden interest in Potions.

            "You understand why we can't use the polyjuice potion?" he asked, hoping that he had finally gotten through to her. She nodded.

            "Polyjuice potion wears off too quickly," said Uric suddenly. They both looked at him.

            "You were listening, Uric?" asked Louis cautiously. The herd of parchment animals covering his desk bespoke otherwise, but you could never be too sure with Uric. 

            "You said to listen," said Uric. Louis did remember telling him that, but he hadn't actually expected Uric to listen to him telling him to listen.

            "It's good that you did," said Louis. "So what do you think of the plan?" Uric blinked and his eyes took on a far away look. 

            "There's nothing wrong with it," he said after a moment. "But why do we want revenge on Varys?"

            "He stole Simon and nearly got us killed, not to mention expelled!" exclaimed Mena. Uric looked upset.

            "Maybe he didn't mean it," he said.

            "He meant it, Uric," said Louis flatly. "And if we let him continue, he's going to get you expelled. Do you want to stop your explorations just because Varys and Professor Stewart are conspiring against you?"

            "No," said Uric in a small voice.

            "It'll be alright, Uric," said Mena, trying to reassure him. "Varys won't get anything worse than detention."

            "She's right," said Louis. "Professor Stewart will protect his favourite pupil. And doing this will protect us."

            "You just have to be where we tell you, when we tell you. Got it?" asked Mena. Uric nodded.

            "Got it."

*****

            "Icky, Uric," shouted Peeves. "Have at thee!" The poltergeist swung his sword wide. Uric backed away from Peeves, then brought his own sword up. 

            "Cheese!" he yelled, and charged straight at him. The sword caught Peeves' foot, and the poltergeist began to yell horribly while turning back flips in the air. 

            "You cut off my foot! My lovely foot. How will I walk? How will I hop? Evil, Uric. Evil!" Uric frowned at the poltergeist, than looked at his 'sword'. It was the handle of an old mop that he had found in an abandoned cupboard. Peeves sword was a simple tree branch. He looked at Peeves foot as the poltergeist continued to rant.

            "But you still have a foot," Uric protested. Peeves shook his head sadly.

            "But will it be the same foot ever again?" he asked. Uric thought about that for a bit.

            "Maybe every time you pass through a wall you're being reborn. That would mean your foot was just reborn," said Uric. He smiled at the poltergeist. "Now you can celebrate its birthday. We can have a party!" Uric was excited at the prospect, but Peeves turned upside down and pouted at him.

            "Stupid theory. Stupid boy. Peeves is dead. Dead as a doornail. There is no being reborn," said the poltergeist softly to himself. 

            "I'm sorry, Peeves," said Uric. He had made the poltergeist sad. Peeves wrinkled his nose and stuck out his tongue at him. 

            "Icky, Uric!" Peeves shredded his sword and threw the pieces at him. Uric closed his eyes against the storm of splinters that was raining down on him and when he opened them Peeves was gone. Uric stared at where the poltergeist had been for a moment, than shrugged. 

            Peeves would be back to play some other day. He looked absently down the corridor. Wasn't there something he was supposed to be doing? 

*****

            "Where is he?" hissed Mena. She was huddled inside a door lintel with the outside of her cloak pulled up tight around her face. Someone would have to look straight at her face to recognize her, which was good since it would be her job to get Uric out of there once their plan culminated. If Uric ever got there that is. 

            She leant out into the corridor and looked down it once again. Still no Uric. She frowned and slumped against the doorway. Uric's part in the plan was simple. All he had to do was be in the proper place at the proper time.

            She and Louis had been watching Varys for two weeks now, learning his routines. It had been easy once Uric had pointed out that Varys was using an invisibility cloak like the 'nice woman's' to get around the castle. 

            They had waited one very long night outside the library doors until Varys left around three in the morning. Then Mena had hit the cloak with a spell to make it glow wherever it was hit. It didn't wear off and since it was on the back, Varys couldn't see it. After that, it had been simple to find out what days and times Varys ventured to the library. 

            It was Thursday morning now, and Varys should be returning very soon down the corridor she was hiding in. Louis should be finished with his part of the plan and on his way. All they needed was Uric…Mena discovered she was biting her lip in frustration and stopped. Uric was going to have a black eye the next time she saw him if he didn't arrive soon. 

*****

            Louis knocked nervously on Professor Thacher's office door. This was the most risky part of their plan, but it was necessary if they wanted a witness other than Professor Stewart. Thacher was actually their second choice, but Louis hadn't been able to find Mr. Kurze anywhere. He wasn't suicidal enough to knock on the Kurze's door, even if he had known where it was. That left Professor Thacher, who was notorious for falling asleep in his office, and had the added plus of being Louis' Head of House.

            Louis could hear footsteps on the other side of the door. There was a muffled curse, or maybe a Disarming Charm, and the door opened.

            "I thought I heard someone _slithering about out here." Professor Thacher beamed down at him. Louis nearly groaned at the pun, but caught himself. If the worst thing that happened to him tonight was listening to a bad pun, then he would be lucky. _

            Their plan was good, but complicated, like all their plans tended to be. Next time it was going to be something simple – like point wand and curse…His attention was brought back to the present when Professor Thacher cleared his throat and spoke.

            "So, Mr. Iliescu would you like to explain why I shouldn't be giving you a detention for being up at this hour of the ni-morning?" He was still smiling, though his eyes held little amusement. That was what Louis loved about Thacher: he always gave you a chance to explain. Well, at least if you were in Slytherin he did.

            "Slytherin is losing the House Cup to Ravenclaw, Sir," said Louis carefully. Professor Thacher nodded encouragingly. "They have some very good students." Thacher nodded again.

            "Like that sixth-year, Erin Privet," said Thacher. "That girl's going to change the world! And-"

            "And Varys Nachleen," said Louis before Professor Thacher could list every Ravenclaw with above average grades.

            "Yes, him too. He's in your year isn't he?" asked Thacher in an innocent tone. Louis nodded. He took a deep breath, then leaned in and spoke in a low voice so that Professor Thacher had to tilt his head to hear him.

            "He's out right now, Sir. He sneaks into the library doing some sort of project that will win Ravenclaw loads of points. He – He'll be in a room near here very soon, Sir." Louis held his breath. He had nearly told Thacher about Professor Stewart's illicit approval of the project, but decided that would be going too far. 

            "Well," said Professor Thacher thoughtfully. "Mr. Kurze is an old man. We wouldn't want to disturb his rest, or the Headmistress' would we?" Louis shook his head. "Then where is this room?" Louis resisted the urge to smile now that the plan was going well.

            "I can show you, Sir," he said. Professor Thacher shook his head.

            "That isn't necessary, Mr. Iliescu. I wouldn't want to have to explain to anyone why one of my Slytherins was wandering about the castle at this hour. In fact, if I did see one wandering about, it would be my duty as a teacher to take away points." Thacher didn't ask him if he understood, but Louis nodded his understanding anyway, taking the advice to heart. 

            "I'm feeling tired, Sir," said Louis. "I think it's time I get back to bed. Varys will be in the Oriental room on the second floor near the main staircase." 

            "I know it," said Professor Thacher.

            "Good night, Sir," said Louis. He headed back toward the dungeons. Professor Thacher called out to him.

            "Louis!" He turned to look at the older wizard.

            "Yes, Sir?"

            "Let's try not to be so obvious next time shall we?" said Thacher pleasantly. Louis smiled.

            "Yes, Sir." He headed down to the dungeons for approximately five minutes, than took a different route towards the Oriental room. He wanted to see this. 

*****

            Uric was crawling quickly down a velvet carpeted corridor when a foot stuck itself out of a doorway. He was forced to stop so that he didn't run into it. 

            "Excuse me, Mr. Foot. Do you think you might move? I need to get down this corridor," he explained politely and tried to look it in the eyes, or toes. Did feet even have eyes? They had to have some way of telling where they were going didn't they?

            "Uric!" said a voice in an attempt at an angry whisper. "Varys is coming down this corridor any second and you're supposed to be standing in front of that door over there!" Mr. Foot kicked him. 

            "Ow!" he said. A hand reached down and grasped his braid, pulling him up to his feet. He came face to face with Mena whose brown eyes were flaring with anger. She clenched her teeth together and took a deep breath before speaking to him.

            "Go stand in that doorway. Make sure Varys sees you and follows you in," she said. Then it would be her job to ward the room so he couldn't leave before whichever person Louis had fetched got there. Uric would get out through the secret passage. "He'll be the floating, glowing spot in the air. Speak to him if you have to. Just get him to follow you in." Uric frowned.

            "Glowing spot? I saw that earlier. It's a person?" he asked. He sounded very disappointed. 

            "Yes," said Mena, then against her better judgement she asked him. "What did you think it was?" 

            "I thought maybe it was actually a temporal vortex floating around Hogwarts. I tried to jump into it, but it floated away." Mena stared at him. She had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. 

            "Get in the doorway, Uric!" she said to cover her confusion. "And make sure you enter the secret passage without him seeing you. Louis should be waiting there." Uric nodded. He smiled at her. 

            "Alright." He walked down the corridor and stood in the proper doorway. Mena breathed a sigh of relief, than pressed herself back into the darkness. 

*****

            Uric stood in the middle of the doorway. His arms and legs were braced against the side of the door so that he was blocking the entire doorway. He was pressing so hard that his arms were beginning to tingle with the strain. He didn't seem to notice when a glowing spot came floating down the corridor to hover in front of him for a moment. With a strange buzz it leapt through his body and into the room. 

            Uric shivered, but was too distracted by his thoughts. If all the stones in the castle were connected, than that would mean that by holding up one stone he was holding up the whole castle. In fact, by holding up the many stones of the doorway, he was actually doing more than his part. He noticed his arms were trembling, but he couldn't stop now that he was holding up the castle. It would be very rude to let the castle fall down if he could stop it.

            Another glowing spot came quickly down the corridor. It nearly strode past the place where Uric was standing, but stopped and came to float right in front of him. Uric looked straight ahead, and said very matter-of-factly, "You can't come in." There was a snort of disdain. 

            "What's in there that's so important?" asked the glowing spot, in spite of himself. Uric didn't answer. Two invisible hands pressed hard at Uric's chest, nearly dislodging him from his post. Had the castle just trembled? 

What felt like a boot hit Uric in the shin and he crumpled in pain, despite his pledge to uphold the castle. He lay curled up on the floor for a moment, wondering if the castle would come down around him now. He felt the swish of the edge of someone's robes as they stepped over him, but nothing else. After a moment he got up and looked around the room. There was still one thing he was supposed to do, wasn't there?

            Behind him, Mena stepped out and warded the door, then pressed herself back into her hiding place. She should have a few minutes before she had to take the ward off again for whichever person Louis had fetched. She forced herself to relax and stay hidden. Whoever it was should pass right by her, so she didn't have to worry.

At the other end of the corridor, the velvet carpet muffled the footsteps of the wizards that strode towards the room with their wands out. 

*****

            A few minutes later, Professor Thacher strolled nonchalantly down the deserted corridor. He stopped in front of the Oriental room and noted that its door had swung wide to reveal the beautiful vases and fans that gave the room its name. There was no sound. He drew his wand and stepped into the room. 

            Floating in the middle of the room, were two masks. One was a snarling dragon, the other a hissing griffin. They twirled slowly and sinisterly as if they were on invisible strings. Written beneath them in glowing letters was this sentence.

            _Power comes in many guises. _

*****

A/N: I've never had this happen before, but this was the chapter that never ends. I could not get it to finish no matter what I tried. It's at least a page over my normal chapter length and I'm not even sure if it's that good, but I'm glad I finally got it out. Sorry for the wait:)

There is a short Uric story taking place in Uric's third year called The Lady on my author page should anyone have missed it the first time:) Chapter 6 of this story has been revised to actually include a humorous ending to the potions class scene, just in case anyone wanted to know. 

Thanks to my reviewers: Gred Weasley, Charon Baranduin, Ozma, Tidmag, Chad-Pendragon, Em, J-kid, Giesbrecht, Kirkusmaximus12, Kath, and Gemin16.

Charon Baranduin: Another Louis fan:) We'll have to start his own fan club soon;)

J-kid: I think I told you this already, but you can share the LOTR scenes with anyone you like. I'm just glad people like them so much. 

Giesbrecht: Thanks for the quote. I was laughing when I read it:)

Gemin16: Well two more chapters, then I can officially start writing Uric's seventh year, though to tell you the truth, I was so inspired one day, I wrote ¾ of the first chapter instead of writing this chapter like I should have been doing;)

Any questions? Please review:)


	19. The Ransom of Uric the Oddball

Chapter 19: The Ransom of Uric the Oddball

            Louis stayed very still as he leant against one of the shelves in the Trophy Room. Mena was pacing back and forth across the room, muttering angrily to herself. She was worried about Uric, but Louis was sure Uric was fine. No one went to so much trouble to kidnap someone, than killed them. Uric was a useful bargaining chip and was safe so long as Mr. Beaufolle wanted him back.

            What Louis was worried about was his upcoming interview with Uric's father. He had sent them an urgent letter telling them he wanted to meet and find out the real story. Mr. Beaufolle was a strict and intelligent man, and if Louis' research was correct, a former Slytherin to boot. He would figure out their little plan as easily as Professor Thacher had. The question was – what would he do about it?

            The oaken door opened and Louis moved to the centre of the room, pulling Mena with him, if only to stop her from pacing. 

            "Mr. Beaufolle," he said after the door closed. The older wizard nodded. His dark brown beard was neatly trimmed, but Louis suspected he had forgotten to fix his hair after his broom flight since it stood up in every direction giving him a wild look that complimented the look in his eyes. Louis did not want to be one of Uric's kidnappers once Mr. Beaufolle got a hold of them. 

            "Tell me what happened," Mr. Beaufolle demanded. "Havenward said you saw it."

            "We were in the Oriental Room, Sir," said Louis. "Well, Uric and Varys were. I was in the secret passage that runs along the left side of the room. Mena was outside, further down the corridor."

            "Standing watch," said Beaufolle flatly. Louis hesitated before answering. As opposed to his son, Uric's father didn't seem to miss much. Louis wanted to keep the rest of the plan secret, but he reluctantly decided that Mr. Beaufolle needed to know.

            "Yes, Sir.  But she didn't see anything until Thacher came, so they must have come down the left-hand corridor."

            "Thacher," mused Mr. Beaufolle. Louis wondered if they knew each other but doubted that Mr. Beaufolle would answer if he asked. 

            "Yes, Sir," was all he said, and he didn't have to wait long for Mr. Beaufolle's next question.

            "And why was Thacher coming?"

            "We had a plan to get Varys caught out of bounds as revenge for his stealing Simon and getting us stuck in the forest during the Wild Hunt," explained Mena impatiently. Louis glared at her. He was shocked that she could be so blunt. He looked to Mr. Beaufolle and saw that he was nodding to himself.

            "And it had only taken you a month," the older wizard said. Louis couldn't tell if Mr. Beaufolle approved or disapproved, but since he wasn't condemning them, he decided to continue. 

            "Uric was supposed to enter the secret passage once he entered the room, and we would have locked it behind him," he said. 

            "Trapping Varys until Thacher came since I put a locking spell on the main door once they were through," said Mena. Mr. Beaufolle didn't say anything.

            "Uric didn't seem to remember the plan," said Louis. "He started talking to Varys about magically enhanced structures. Mena had to wait until Thacher passed before she came to see, so I was the only one in the passage. There was no way for me to get Uric out of there, and just when I was going to go get Mena and delay Professor Thacher, two wizards came in."

            "Were they wearing masks?" asked Mr. Beaufolle. He sounded like he was holding his temper in check so he didn't scare them. Louis nodded.

            "Yes, a red dragon and a golden griffin. One of them was a lot taller than the other too."

            "What did Uric do?" Mr. Beaufolle asked. Louis shrugged.

            "I think he was going to talk to them, but the golden griffin petrified Varys while the red dragon cast some sort of spell around Uric that caused him to be surrounded by a dark cloud." Louis actually knew the name of the spell, but since it was Dark Arts and not exactly common knowledge, he would feel better letting Uric's father think he hadn't heard the spell or understood it. Beaufolle definitely recognized which spell it was.

            "Why do you think they used that particular spell on him instead of petrification?" he asked. 

            "Uric's unpredictable," said Louis, already having considered the question. "They learnt that the first time they tried for him." A thought occurred to him. "Varys' father is in support of the Council abolition isn't he?" Mr. Beaufolle ignored the question. 

            "Continue," he said impatiently. 

            "The man in the golden griffin mask floated Varys and Uric out of the room. The red dragon wizard stayed. He cast a complicated spell that conjured replicas of their masks. They hung spinning in the air and than he wrote the words 'Power comes in many guises' underneath them," explained Louis.

            "Mr Beaufolle looked thoughtful. Louis was sure the phrase meant something to him. "Did anyone see them?" the older wizard asked.

            "Headmistress Kurze checked for anyone after she found out, but of course they were gone by then." Professor Thacher had done his own search as well, but Louis had no idea what he had found. Mr. Beaufolle seemed to read his mind. 

            "Where is Thacher?" he asked. 

            "He was with Mrs. Kurze last time we saw him," said Mena, looking relieved that he had asked a question she could answer. 

            "But he could be in his office by now," added Louis.

            "The Charms office?" Mr. Beaufolle seemed both distracted and excited. Louis nodded. Beaufolle turned to leave the room, but then the politician within him asserted itself and he turned back. 

            "Thank you both for your help. If there's anything else I need to know, tell Thacher." His eyes were boring into theirs and all Mena and Louis could manage were frantic nods of agreement. Beaufolle left the room, and they saw him pause, then turn right before he disappeared out of sight. Mena turned to Louis. 

            "Is he going to Thacher or Kurze?" she asked. Louis shook his head.

            "You can get to both of them by going right from here." And there were no secret passages into any teacher's office. Well, except for Defence Against the Dark Arts, but he didn't think Stewart would be happy to see them right now. 

            "What do we do now, Louis?" asked Mena in a quiet voice. His first inclination was to say 'nothing'. After all, they were only just first-years and even the fully grown wizards were having trouble dealing with this. But Uric was involved and much as Louis hated to admit it in public, he was friend. Not to mention Mena would go off and do something foolish if he didn't think of something.

            "Come on," he said, and led the way out of the room, turning left down the corridor.

*****

            When Uric woke up it was dark. This was a usual occurrence so he wasn't too worried until he tried to move. His neck flopped up and he was able to blink a few times. Nothing but his head could move. He considered the possibility that perhaps his head was the only part of him here, but decided that couldn't be since his toes would never abandon him.

            He listened for the snores of his roommates, and the gentle twittering of Simon sleeping, but all he heard was the quiet sound of one person other than himself drawing in breath. He had to see who it was. It never occurred to him to just call out. He struggled to break free of the petrification. 

            "Who is it?" a scared voice called, but Uric didn't have time to answer. He held himself very still, than carefully relaxed each part of his body. Then he did it again, and again. He lost track of the time in the darkness as he began to chant.

            "Free me. Free me," he said over and over inside his head. Many seconds, minutes, hours, days later the spell dissolved. He lay there for a moment, suddenly aware of the sweat that was pouring off him. Relaxing was hard work. He slowly got up and crawled over to where he had heard the voice. 

            "Help," it yelped when he bumped into someone's body. Hadn't he heard that voice before?

            "Hello. How are you?" he asked politely, settling himself comfortably next to the voice's body.

            "Petrified. What do you think, Uric?" snarled the voice. Uric was delighted.

            "You know my name!" he exclaimed. He heard the voice sigh. 

            "It's Varys, you idiot. We've been kidnapped. No wonder I have so much trouble explaining why you get better grades."

            "Explaining to who?" asked Uric. Varys ignored him.

            "Why aren't you petrified?" asked Varys.

            "I got out."

            "How?" demanded Varys. He sounded panicked. Uric tried to think of a way to explain.

            "The _petrificus spell freezes the outer layer of one's body in place until the counter spell is performed, so it is simply a matter of removing the outer layer of your body from the environs of the spell," he explained. Varys was silent for a moment. _

            "But how?" he finally asked. Uric shrugged in the darkness.

            "I relaxed." There was a dull knocking sound as Varys hit the back of his head against the stone floor.

*****

            Mena felt very exposed. There was something wrong with being able to walk right in front of someone and have them not see you. If this was what using an invisibility cloak was always like, then she never wanted one. She didn't care what type of advantage it would give her.

            Louis didn't seem to mind though. She was annoyed that he hadn't told her about grabbing Varys invisibility cloak before now. With their own marker spell removed, they were now free to listen in on any adults they chose.

            "Why Kurze?" she whispered, hoping Louis would answer her this time. He had been even quieter than normal since Uric was kidnapped. Louis stopped walking.

            "It's impossible to eavesdrop on Thacher's office. A sixth-year Slytherin tried it before Christmas. She still sings _Ring around the Posies at inopportune moments," he said. Mena gave him a sceptical look but he didn't seem to notice. "The Headmistress on the other hand, is still waiting in the Oriental Room for Mr. Beaufolle to arrive. Rather nervously waiting, I imagine." _

            "But she doesn't know anything," hissed Mena. Louis gestured for her to be silent as a Gryffindor prefect rushed through the corridor they occupied. Everyone knew about the disappearances by now and Louis and Mena should really be in the Great Hall with all the other students. But Mena refused to go back until she knew they had done everything possible to help Uric.

            "Beaufolle and Thacher have to tell her something," said Louis once the corridor was empty again. "Which is more than they'll tell us."

            They approached the Oriental Room from the left corridor, just like the kidnappers had done. The door was ajar thankfully, and they slipped in easily, despite nearly bumping into the black robes of Professor Stewart. They found a place in the corner and watched as Headmistress Kurze sent an angry spell at the two masks and words floating in the middle of the room.

            "Beaufolle might want to see those," suggested Stewart nervously. Mrs. Kurze was pacing like a caged lioness. She turned a glare on Stewart that made him step back.

            "I promised Mr. Beaufolle that his child would be safe. _You assured me that he would be, and now he is missing and so is Varys Nachleen. We are only lucky that Mr. Nachleen is too embroiled in the Abolition crisis to pay attention to the whereabouts of his son." Stewart seemed to find strength from somewhere to stand up straighter and speak._

            "Nevertheless, we will have to inform Mr. Nachleen of his son's disappearance soon." Mrs. Kurze gave him a shrewd look.

            "And perhaps you'd like to explain why your student was wandering about at such a late hour. It's not his first time either, if I recall correctly," she said. Mena rejoiced at seeing Stewart in such a bad position, but before Stewart could defend himself, Mr. Beaufolle and Professor Thacher walked into the room. Uric's father looked calm on the outside, but Mena thought he was like her when she was really angry. Any moment now and he would hit someone.

            "Mr. Beaufolle," began the Headmistress. "I'm sorry you had to come so far for…" she trailed off. Mr. Beaufolle was ignoring her and examining the masks in the centre of the room. He reached out and touched the mask of the red dragon. It stopped spinning and turned to face him.

            "What do you want?" demanded Mr. Beaufolle. The room was very quiet. The dragon mask's mouth pulled itself into a toothy grimace. It took a moment for Mena to recognize it as a smile.

            "A reversal of your position in the upcoming vote on the Council's abolition, and one thousand galleons for the extra trouble you and your son have caused us. We will contact you about further arrangements," said the mask.

            "And Nachleen? What about him?" asked Beaufolle. The mask remained silent. Mr. Beaufolle stared hard at it, and Mena was sure he was fuming.

            "How is Uric?" he finally asked. The dragon mask gave a throaty laugh.

            "As well as anyone can be when they're locked in a dungeon labyrinth. Have I mentioned the guardian beasts?" The mask continued to laugh, louder and louder until Mena wanted to clamp her hands over her ears. The dragon mask slowly faded away, leaving the laughter to echo throughout the room.

            "How did you know which one to touch?" asked Professor Thacher in a casual tone, as if he hadn't just witnessed a disturbing ransom demand. Mr. Beaufolle was still looking at the spot where the mask had been.

            "Nachleen's a Gryffindor. It seemed appropriate," he responded distractedly.

            "Mr. Beaufolle, we really should go to my office and discuss this," said Mrs. Kurze into the growing silence. Mr. Beaufolle appeared to notice her for the first time.

            "No time, Headmistress," he said firmly. Mrs. Kurze looked taken aback. She had probably expected Mr. Beaufolle to yell at her.

            "If there is anything we can do to help, Mr. Beaufolle," she said. "Please don't hesitate to-"

            "There is something," he said. "You wouldn't happen to have been tracking him, would you? I was told your husband was doing so earlier this year." Something about the question seemed to annoy Mrs. Kurze.

            "I saw no need to bespell your son," she said frostily. Mr. Beaufolle smiled disconcertingly.

            "I wasn't accusing you of anything, Headmistress. Would your husband know anything?" he asked.

            "I, yes - Olman would know." Mena smothered a giggle. Mr. Beaufolle had Mrs. Kurze as confused as Uric usually made the Headmistress. 

            "Could you summon him?" he asked. Mrs. Kurze nodded. She tapped a red stone that she was wearing on her wrist. Mr. Kurze came in only a few seconds later. So fast that Mena wondered if he had been listening at the door. He looked around the room, than addressed Mrs. Kurze.

            "You called, Headmistress?"

            "Yes, Olman. Mr. Beaufolle wants to know if you've been tracking Uric," Mrs. Kurze explained. Mr. Kurze shook his head. Mena thought he looked sad. 

            "I had a transport stone on him earlier this year, but he used it after their first attempt to kidnap him," he said. Mr. Beaufolle looked disappointed. 

            "Well, thank-" 

            "Wait," interrupted Mr. Kurze excitedly. He tapped his finger against the side of his head. "I've remembered something. There may be a way to track him. We have to go to your office, dear," he said to a surprised Mrs. Kurze.

            "Let's go then," said Mr. Beaufolle, taking charge. He swept out, followed closely by Mr. Kurze and Thacher. Mrs. Kurze and Stewart had to hurry after them.

            As soon as they left, Mena threw off the cloak in disgust, ignoring Louis' frantic attempts to make her leave it on. She went over to stare out the door. What had Mr. Kurze remembered?

*****

A/N: In the last chapter I said a group of wizards came to the room and in this chapter since I didn't have access to even my own writings, I brought it down to only two. The wording in the chapter 18 will be changed to reflect this change since it works better. This chapter, as you've probably noticed is a lot longer than usual, as will be the next one since my pen keeps running away with me. Somehow I suspect none of you will mind…This story has now been revised all the way up to chapter twelve. 

Thanks to Tidmag, AniMourner, Ozma, Giesbrecht, Mistri, Chad-Pendragon, Lady Knight of Kennan, Gemin16, Duke, Erin, Koashura, ahq, Indigo Ziona, Lavander Ice, NM (Narcissa Malfoy, and Springrain.

Tidmag: Professor Darshan had a different poster on the wall, but Uric got into the spirit of things, changed the words and put it up in his own special place on the ceiling.

Chad-Pendragon: Well, the masked wizards are terrorists in the sense that they'll do anything to get what they want, but their aims are mostly political. The Death Eaters aims are more power and they have a powerful dark wizard as a leader which the masked wizards don't. 

Gemin16: There will definitely be a focus on Louis' family since they wormed their way into the plot…I'm a bit scared by the number of Louis/Mena shippers I suddenly have:) You'll have to wait and see if you're right though…

Duke: The abductors want him for political reasons, but they have some idea of Uric's unpredictability after their first attempt to capture him. 

Erin: Mena and Uric are just friends. She's just taken it into her head that keeping him in line is her responsibility.

Koashura: You're scaring me dear. I hope you know that:P

Ahq: Are you an archaeology student too, or was it just for fun?

Indigo Ziona: Simon for president!

Lavander Ice: Yeah, I only remembered the colours after I typed the chapter. Don't worry, it's been fixed, but thanks:) They do play Quidditch, but the only one of our little trio who would be interested is Mena, and since they can't play in first-year they don't pay much attention to what's happening with it. There'll be more quidditch in seventh-year.

NM: In general, muggles are considered sort of non-entities in the wizarding world. There's not as much intermarrying and a lot fewer muggle-born students in general. Not to mention Hogwarts isn't the only school in Britain at this time. Pure-blood is still considered the premium, but since there are so many wizards who can claim it, it's a bit harder to be snobbish about it. Later on, when the pure-blooded families feel they are being threatened is when it becomes such a huge issue, while in Uric's time, it's just one of many issues. I love the Thacher-Louis scene too:)

Thanks for reading. Please review:)


	20. All Good Things

Chapter 20: All Good Things…

            Uric wasn't sure what to do. His instincts told him to explore, but Varys had demanded that he stay with him. If he had his wand, he could levitate Varys with him, but he didn't have it and his parents had told him countless times not to use wandless magic. 

            He leant in really close to Varys and whispered where he thought the other boy's ear was. "I need to go. There's something wrong with this place. You don't have to worry. The badgers will always protect you, even in the dark, and I don't think there's any pudding around so you should be okay." Varys started calling his name, louder and louder as he moved away, but Uric's mind was on other things.

            He paused for a moment as he heard a scratching noise in the darkness, than forced himself to continue onward. He really wasn't entirely sure about the lack of puddings in this place, but Varys had seemed much more scared than he was so he had to tell him something. 

            The darkness was complete in every direction, but the air wasn't still. A warm gush of air was coming from somewhere. Uric followed it back to its source. There was a door, he could feel it, and the warm air came from the crack at the bottom. He felt around it. The door had huge, iron hinges and was bared from the other side. Uric frowned at it. He had to get out. 

            A search in his pockets revealed many things. A long piece of yarn. A pretty stick he had found. A figure designed to look like a hippogriff bowing. A strange grey rock. Exactly thirteen buttons. Some milkweed.

            Uric pulled out the yarn and threaded it though the side of the door, than pulled to lift up the bar. Nothing happened. Reluctantly he tried the stick instead. Yarn was easy to come by, but a pretty stick was priceless. He braced it against the bottom of the bar and pushed up. The stick snapped, but not before the bar was lifted high enough. Since Uric was leaning against the door, he fell forward into a stone-lined corridor. A magical torch flickered to life in a bracket on the wall. 

            Uric picked up the remains of the pretty stick and placed them back in his pocket. Perhaps he could salvage it later. The new light showed many things. The room he had been in was actually rather large and the torch only managed to illuminate the area around the door and the petrified body of Varys near the middle of the room. There were no puddings that Uric could see, but they could be hiding in the darkness. Uric considered for a moment, than closed and locked the door again. Now Varys would be safe. He did wonder what Varys was yelling at him before he shut the door though. 

            The corridor he was in curved away in both directions. Uric picked a direction at random and began to wander. There was something very odd about this place. There was no ceiling for one thing, except very high up hidden in the darkness. Uric was at a loss to explain why someone would want a large room full of passageways without ceilings. Strange noises, like the permanent hissing he heard down one corridor were all around him. There were no decorations like at Hogwarts. Every corridor looked the same as the other, and it was only by the various different sounds coming from the different parts of the big room that he was able to keep his bearings. He unconsciously avoided going near those noises though. 

He was still wandering nearly an hour later when the sounds of harsh cursing drifted to him down one of the many corridors. He stopped a tilted his head towards the noise. The voices issuing those curses sounded human. He wondered if he should head towards them? But they were coming towards him at an alarming rate. Within a few minutes, two angry wizards strode into view. They weren't wearing masks like before, but Uric could recognize them from the two times they had attacked him and the nice woman. 

"Beaufolle!" thundered the taller one when he spotted Uric. It occurred to Uric that he might not want to see these wizards again. A curse hit the corner as he ran around it. More curses, some of a more mundane nature came after it, followed by a bellow of pain. Uric didn't stop running, but all the noise they were making was confusing him as to where he was going. He turned down a corridor like all the others and ran into a dead end. 

It was occupied. A creature Uric had never seen before was chained by a very rusty chain to the opposite wall. It had the legs of a goat, but the body of a boy, if a very hairy boy. On its hairy head were two very sharp and curved horns. The creature was crouched down watching him with glittering, black eyes. Uric stared at it, his eyes unfocused as he ran through his mental catalogue of magical creatures. He smiled suddenly.

"Hello, Mr. Satyr. I'm Uric Beaufolle." He bowed to the feral looking creature. The satyr seemed to have been waiting for him to do so since it leap towards him, its head down as if to skewer him with its horns. Uric heard the clatter of its hooves on the floor. He straightened up and took a step back, accidentally treading on the end of his robes. With a startled cry, he fell backwards and the satyr, unable to adjust in time, fell on top of him. Uric wrinkled up his nose.

"You need a bath, Mr. Satyr," he said. The satyr boy struggled on top of him, trying to find purchase with its hooves, but Uric was squirming too (since it tickled) and neither of them were able to get up. Finally, the satyr let out an inhuman roar in Uric's face. Uric froze for a moment, giving the satyr the time to roll off his prey and come up in a crouch, his rusty chains clanking with every move. 

Uric got up as well, ignoring the creature while he brushed off his robes the best he could. They were horribly stained from the rust and the satyr's lack of hygiene. The house elves were going to be very upset. He looked up to find the satyr watching him warily. Its eyes were no longer glittering madly. In a moment of clarity, Uric got the impression that it was waiting for him to hit it. 

It was a new thought for Uric. He had never considered the idea that someone might want to willingly hurt someone, not seriously anyway. But if Louis and Mena were right, Varys had wanted to do that to Simon, and those wizards had been trying to hurt him when they cursed him back there. He knew what spells like crucio and laceratus were meant to do. Perhaps they were just as mean to other people. Maybe it was those wizards who actually hit Mr. Satyr. 

How horrible. 

"I'm sorry, Mr. Satyr. They shouldn't be treating you that way." He took a step towards it and the satyr backed away, its eyes filled with fear. 

"Get back!" it croaked in a voice hoarse with disuse. Uric beamed at it.

"You can speak!" He had come up with an idea, but it wouldn't work if he couldn't get the satyr to understand him. "I need to get closer, Mr. Satyr and then maybe I can get those chains off." He took another step forward, and the satyr took step back, pressing itself against the wall. "Please." The satyr regarded him for a long moment, than turned its head sideways to reveal the iron collar around its neck. Attached to a ring at the back were two heavy, rusty chains. 

Uric frowned as he slowly approached the satyr. Both his mother and father had made sure he understood the consequences of wandless magic. Unfocused, it was the most dangerous force on earth and focused it still held that title. Wizards used wands to help them control that magic and to make sure that they didn't burn themselves out. Uric couldn't help it when he did things without his wand, but he wasn't supposed to do them purposely. Maybe when he was older his mother had told him one day, but definitely not now. If he did this he would be disobeying a direct order from both his parents. But didn't the satyr deserve to be as happy as he was? Didn't it deserve to be free to find the badgers? His parents would have to understand. 

He reached out to touch the chain, not even noticing when the satyr boy flinched away from him. His hands closed over the rusty chains and he knew what to do. He willed the chains to grow even more rusty until the iron was gone. The chains crumbled, leaving a dark red powder all over his hands. A glance down the corridor revealed two lines of the red powder leading all the way to the now empty wall at the end of the corridor. Uric found himself sweating profusely for the second time in the day. 

He stepped back and bowed once again to the satyr. He then turned to go back the way he had come, but the satyr boy's dirty hand closed on to his arm. It pulled him back and pointed in the other direction towards the dead end. 

"That way!" it croaked. Uric shrugged and walked towards the wall. He didn't even blink when he walked right through it, but then he was used to such things as magical walls. The corridor he emerged into was wider than the one he had left, and colder. He shivered. The stone was darker here, and Uric was reminded of the darkest dungeons in Hogwarts. 

He walked forwards and was surprised to find none of the side passages and strange turns that had characterized the other corridors. The corridor occasionally widened into much larger rooms and seemed to curve always to the right. Uric passed through everything without too much thought. A funny thing with a bull's body and two serpents growing out of its back, growled loudly at him in one room. Uric frowned back at it, and it backed into a corner. In another room, Uric instinctively stepped on the proper flagstones to get across, never even glancing up at the huge stone waiting to crush him if he took a wrong step. 

Finally, Uric entered a room a bit larger than the others. At first he thought it was empty, but then he could hear a large scratching noise. A huge rooster stood up from a nest of hay in one corner. It was a bit strange looking for a rooster. It had black scales on its neck but it had the head of a rooster. Its tail was like a lizard's. Huge black wings sprouted from its back. Uric was strongly reminded of Simon. 

            It came charging towards him, but Uric didn't move. Stopping in front of him, it cocked its head to look at him with one beady eye that was larger than Uric's head. It opened its beak and let out a screeching crow that was meant to intimidate. Uric put his hands over his ears but stood his ground. This really was the biggest rooster he had ever seen. He wondered if it could fly? 

            Without warning, the rooster ducked its head, slamming its beak into the ground right next to Uric. The floor cracked under the pressure, and a cloud of grey mist issued from the rooster's beak. Uric inhaled it and started coughing. It felt like he was breathing fire. The rooster pulled back and regarded his coughing with some satisfaction. It pawed the floor with its sharp feet, than headed in for the kill. 

            Uric knew he had to move, no matter how much he wanted to know about the rooster. He dove forward and through the legs of the surprised creature. Coughing, he came up running and headed for the door. His eyes were beginning to water from the strange grey mist that the rooster had expelled. The ground shook behind him as the rooster came after him, its long legs eating up the distance. With a great cry, it launched itself into the air, its claws out to rip Uric to shreds. 

            Uric slammed into something warm and solid. An arm wrapped itself tightly around Uric, and Uric felt the surge of magic from whoever was holding him. "_Contegonos!" bellowed a voice that Uric was sure he recognized. Uric could hear the crash as the big rooster slammed into an invisible shield. "Havenward!" _

            "Yes, Sir," said the nice woman's voice from off to Uric's left. "_Clamocrista!" From somewhere all around them, there was the sound of a cock crowing. There was a great crash that shook the room, and then nothing. Uric looked up at who he had run into, trying to focus his watering eyes. He coughed a few times, than grinned happily._

            "Father!" he exclaimed. His father's blurry face looked down at him, than looked away. 

            "Thacher! Get over here and stop playing with that compass!"

            "Let's keep in mind that I'm not in your employ, Alastair," said the pleasant voice of Uric's Charms teacher. He didn't sound very annoyed though. Something was thrust in Uric's hand. "Drink up, Uric. Don't mind the taste." Uric didn't mind the taste at all. He liked socks, though he never thought he'd be drinking something that tasted like them.

            "What's that?" asked Havenward.

            "A general antidote. It should take care of the cockatrice's poison," said Thacher. Uric blinked his eyes and found them clearing. The burning sensation in his throat went away and he could breathe without coughing. He looked around and saw the cockatrice lying dead only a meter or so in front of them. 

            "Whatever possessed you to take on a cockatrice on your own?" demanded his father. He sounded very angry. "Don't ever do something like that again!" Uric looked down. He hated to disappoint his father.

            "I'm sorry," he said. His father pulled him into a hug.

            "It's alright," he said gruffly, holding Uric there for a long moment before pushing him away. "Now, was Varys with you?"

*****

            Mena cautiously approached Mr. Kurze. He was putting a suit of armour together that had been dismembered by Peeves. Louis had said there was no way to find out what the adults were doing to get Uric back. Mena had believed him for awhile, but then it had occurred to her that sometimes Louis missed the most obvious things. She was sure it had never occurred to him to just ask what they were doing. The worst Mr. Kurze could do was tell her to go away, or give her a detention since she should be back in her Common Room like all the other students. A detention, or even losing points would be worth it if it got them some information, no matter what it would do to Hufflepuff's reputation.

            "Mr. Kurze," she said. He looked up at her, his eyes narrowing in thought and she was sure he was trying to remember her name. 

            "Miss. Smith, isn't it?" She nodded her head. He looked her over and Mena was acutely aware that with her oversized cloak on she looked like she was planning on leaving. She hadn't taken the time to change since Uric had been kidnapped. Deliberately, Mr. Kurze set down the greave he had been attaching. "What can I do for you, Miss. Smith?" he asked kindly.  

            "I was wondering about Uric," she blurted out. "What are you doing to get him back? Is he going to be alright?" For some reason he was smiling at her. "Sir," she added belatedly. 

            "You're not supposed to be out, you know," he said, though he still sounded amused. "I suppose it's to be expected that Uric would rub off on you." Mena wasn't sure if she was being complimented or insulted.

            "Please, Mr. Kurze." She bit her lip. She hated to beg. 

            "Do you remember that time in the Headmistress' office, when things went crazy for a moment?" he asked suddenly. Mena nodded. 

            "Uric messed something up, like usual," she said. Uric didn't always mess things up, she admitted to herself, but she wasn't about to take the statement back. 

            "Perhaps he did," Mr. Kurze mused. "But he did manage to do something correct. He touched a compass, I charmed many years ago for my wife so she could find our dog when it ran away, something that idiot dog did regularly. Jacko died, though and she left the compass there. It tunes itself to whoever touches it, allowing you to find them. Luckily, the charm hadn't faded." 

            "Then you've found Uric?" asked Mena excitedly. Mr. Kurze frowned apologetically at her.

            "It's not that precise a charm. You have to just follow the arrow. Even with apparating, it could take them hours to narrow down where Uric is, and then they still have to rescue him and Varys." 

            "Why aren't you out there then?" demanded Mena angrily. He didn't seem to take offence at her accusation. 

            "Mr. Beaufolle, Professor Thacher and Miss. Havenward are all out searching for him. They don't need the help of an old, worn out wizard like myself," he said wearily. For some reason Mena wanted to comfort him.

            "You thought of the compass. They couldn't have done that," she said. He stared at her for a moment, than started chuckling.

            "And how would you know that, Miss. Smith?" he asked. 

            "Well, I-" He waved away her explanation. 

            "Don't tell me. I'm sure you didn't do any harm. Get back to your Common Room before I have to take away points." She turned to go. "Oh, and Miss. Smith?" She turned back to him.

            "Yes?"

            "Don't worry about Uric. Even if I didn't think that the boy's probably driving his kidnappers mad by now, I'd be assured that Mr. Beaufolle looked ready to walk into Hell to get him back. Those kidnappers are in for a surprise." He sounded very happy about it. 

            "I want to help," blurted out Mena. It was frustrating to know that the adults were out there doing exactly what she wanted to do. Mr. Kurze nodded sagely.

            "So do I, girl. But sometimes we have to let others do things for us. Sometimes the waiting takes just as much courage." 

*****

"Basilisk!" yelled Thacher in warning. He backed up around the corner towards them, his eyes tightly closed.

            "A basilisk," muttered Mr. Beaufolle. "What's next, a bloody chimera?" He was getting more annoyed the longer it took them to find Varys. It didn't help that they seemed to be attracting all the creatures in the place. They had already run into a bunyip, two harpies and an ice demon. 

            "That's two corridors down on the right," said Uric helpfully. His father had wanted to leave him behind in the care of Miss. Havenward, but Thacher had reluctantly pointed out that Uric might be the only one of them who had a chance of finding the way back to the room with Varys in it. Uric had led them through the various outer rooms, not even noticing the looks the older wizards were giving the various creatures and traps within them. 

            He had found the dead end, but when they went through the satyr boy was no where to be found. Uric remembered to tell his father about what he had done to free the satyr while they were walking. He was very apologetic. 

            "You are the damnedest child," was all his father said while staring at him. 

            "Don't tell him anything next time, Uric. You'll save him the nightmares," observed Thacher as they moved on. Now that Uric knew that the strange noises were various magical creatures, he was able to identify many of them by sound. He remembered the hissing of the basilisk from before. Varys wasn't too much further. 

            "We could try the clamocrista spell again," suggested Havenward. "That's supposed to kill basilisks too." Thacher shook his head.

            "Basilisks were bred to be immune to that little trick centuries ago," he said.

            "Well, maybe it's an old basilisk," suggested Havenward with a frown. She had very efficiently taken care of the bunyip for them earlier, but something about the ice demon had seemed to unsettle her. "How did you get by, Uric?" He shrugged.

            "I walked," said Uric. He thought about it for a moment. "But it wasn't there when I came through here." Something else had been there, but he couldn't remember what. Mr. Beaufolle sighed. 

            "We'll cast a chameleon charm on ourselves and run through. We don't have time to fight," he said decisively. The others nodded their assent and Thacher cast the charm on them all. 

            "Ready," said Thacher. "Remember not to look it in the eyes." He risked a glance around the corner. "It's facing the other way. Let's go." Thacher went first, than Miss. Havenward, than Uric followed by his father. Uric couldn't help but look at the mythical creature as he ran. Hadn't his Uncle Melphicles tried to breed one last year? His eyes examined the basilisk's body, careful not to look up at the head. The way the torch light reflected off its scales was very pretty. There was a large bulge near the end of the basilisk's body that was closest to its head. He stopped running, and took a step closer to see what it was. A loud hissing filled the air.

            His father grabbed the back of his robes and used them to lift Uric up so his feet weren't touching the ground. Mr. Beaufolle sprinted towards the end of the corridor. They could hear the basilisk slithering after them. They rounded a corner, and the slithering noise cut off, though his father didn't stop running for a very long time. Uric wished he would put him down since his robes were choking him. 

            Finally he was slammed down, while his father caught his breath. Uric went to ask a question.

            "Uric," warned Mr. Beaufolle. Uric shut his mouth. "We should have blind folded him," said his father to Thacher. "We're just lucky it had already eaten today and wasn't eager to chase down new prey." 

            "Was that what that lump was?" asked Uric, forgetting he wasn't supposed to ask. 

            "Yes," answered his father. "I suspect that our kidnappers don't have as much control over this place as they think." He sounded very happy about that for some reason. 

            "We need to keep moving," warned Miss. Havenward. She seemed to be listening for something. The other two nodded.

            "Lead the way, Uric," said Thacher with a polite bow. It didn't take Uric long to show them the rest of the way. The door was closed like it had been when he left it. Uric just hoped that the pudding hadn't learnt to open doors. He opened the door and went in, followed by the older wizards. His father had taken a torch from the wall and was holding it high. Varys was no longer on the floor. He was instead pinned to the far wall in some type of cocoon. It looked like he was unconscious. Uric wondered when the pudding had learnt to spin webs. He looked around.

            "Where's-" he began to ask, but Thacher shushed him. 

            "Acromantula," said the Charms professor in an undertone to his father. Mr. Beaufolle nodded, than began to walk across the room towards Varys. Uric was watching intently when the door behind them slammed shut. 

            Two of the kidnappers stood in front of it, their wands pointing at the little group. They had put their masks back on (a red dragon and a black demon), but Uric noted that the taller wizard from earlier was missing. He looked back towards his father. Mr. Beaufolle was standing calmly in the centre of the room, the picture of dignity, while Thacher attempted to glare holes in the two kidnappers heads. Uric had never seen his Charms professor look so angry. 

            "Hello, Mr. Dragon. Mr. Demon," said Uric politely. 

            "What have I told you about talking to strangers, Uric?" asked his father. Uric had to think about that one for a moment.

            "Be nice until you get what you want?" His father gave some very odd advice sometimes. 

            "Ha! And here I was beginning to wonder if he was yours," said Thacher, ignoring the dirty look Mr. Beaufolle was sending his way. His father was about to respond when a growl interrupted them.

            "You gentlemen don't seem to understand the situation you're in," said the demon in a deep, but strangely polite voice. "Killing you all will solve my problems nicely, especially your son. He's caused a lot of trouble." Uric's father was shaking his head.

            "Nachleen will fight until the end to stop the Council abolition if you kill his son. He was only wavering when you kidnapped the boy. Now he's certain to go over to the Council's side." Mr. Beaufolle sounded smug. The demon-masked man shrugged. 

            "Perhaps I won't kill young Mr. Nachleen then, but you three are useless to me. My monsters are hungry."

            "Yes, we noticed that," said Thacher lightly. "Basilisks are so hard to control when you're not a parselmouth." The red dragon spoke for the first time.

            "You seem to think you have the upper hand," snarled the dragon mask. "We've been watching you since you came in. You didn't think we'd be stupid enough not to put a tracking charm on the boy?" 

            "Did we think they were stupid, Thacher? I don't recall," said Uric's father casually. Uric was fascinated by how much angrier the dragon mask was beginning to look. 

            "I don't believe we ever thought it," responded Thacher in the same tone. "It was just a natural assumption." Was it possible for the dragon mask to turn redder? "Do you remember our old school chum, Gallus Trentin?" Mr. Beaufolle snorted.

            "You mean, Gallus "We marry our cousins and I'm the result" Trentin?" he asked. The red dragon masked man took a step forward.

            "Yes," said Thacher, oblivious to the effect his words were having on the dragon masked wizard. "It's amazing his family had the _gall to send him to Hogwarts. Now he was-" Thacher never got to finish his sentence since he was tackled by the dragon masked wizard._

Before the two of them hit the ground, Uric's father drew in a deep breath and bellowed. "Havenward!" The shout was deafening. Uric wasn't sure what to watch. Thacher and the dragon masked wizard were fighting. His father was running towards Varys to cut him down. The demon masked wizard was throwing curses towards both Thacher and Mr. Beaufolle, but he seemed hesitant to hit his colleague so most of the shots went wild. He didn't have time for many shots anyway. The door behind him began to glow with power until it suddenly exploded off its hinges, falling down on top of the demon masked wizard with a large crash. He lay senseless underneath it, his mask askew. 

Miss Havenward strode determinedly over the fallen door, her wand trained on the two combatants. She waited patiently for an opening. Finally, Thacher used his legs to kick the dragon faced man off him for a moment. 

"I hate your puns!" spat out the dragon just before Havenward's stupefy hit him in the side. Thacher got slowly to his feet. He felt a spot on his upper arm and winced. "That's going to bruise. You're supposed to attack with your wand," he chided his unconscious opponent. "You alright there, Alastair?" he called. Uric noticed it was a lot darker than it should be. 

There was no answer. They all stared in horror at the other side of the room. The back wall was no longer visible as curtain after curtain of spider's web hung in front of it obscuring their view. There was no sign of Varys or Uric's father, though his torch lay extinguished in front of the web. 

"Father?" called out Uric. Thacher glanced back at him, studying him in much the same way Louis looked at him sometimes. The older wizard glanced back at the web, than closed his eyes.

"_Accio__ Uric's wand!" he called out. There was a groan as the heavy door shifted slightly, making Miss. Havenward throw her arms out for balance. Uric's wand shot out from under the door and Uric wondered if it had been in the black demon wizard's pocket all this time. Thacher handed it to him and gave him a very serious look. There was no sign of the wizard who had been making jokes earlier._

"This is very important, Uric. Acromantula's are afraid of light, and we're going to need a lot of it. I don't know how many of them there are in here. You need to keep a constant Light Charm on that wall until we've come out. No mind wandering. Focus only on the charm. Got that?" Uric nodded. 

"Be careful of the pudding," he said. They couldn't be sure that it was just acromantualas back there. Thacher gave him an odd look, than turned away. 

"Ready, Havenward?" he asked. She walked to join them. 

"I'll get the boy. You go after Mr. Beaufolle," she said. She looked ready to take on the whole world. Thacher nodded. The two of them advanced towards the wall of web, leaving Uric standing behind them in front of the fallen door. 

"Now, Uric!" called Thacher. 

"_Photos!" A wide, brilliant beam of light shot out of Uric's wand, silhouetting Thacher and Havenward. A high pitched wailing started, joined by another voice, and than another until the entire room was literally vibrating with the noise. Uric giggled a little, making the beam of light bounce around. He had never had a sound try to tickle him before. _

Thacher and Havenward shouted out spells that Uric couldn't hear over the continuous wail. The wall of webs parted down the middle, and they rushed in leaving Uric alone. He continued to hold the spell, noting absently as the shreds of webbing began to float toward him on an invisible wind. The wails abruptly diminished, dropping from many wails, too two, than one, than none. It was silent then, but a muffled silence caused by so much web in the room. 

The web was floating closer, the shreds undulating like ghostly arms. Uric wondered why he couldn't feel the wind. One piece touched his leg, and stuck there. Than another touched his wand arm. It lay there for a moment, than pulled. Uric yelled, startled by the action. He still maintained the spell, but now the wand was pointing towards the corner and the webbing now covered his entire arm and leg. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't pull his arm around far enough to point it back at the wall. 

"Let go!" It was a pity he couldn't speak to the web in its own language. He was beginning to panic. Thacher had wanted the light in the middle. He was supposed to keep the light in the middle. "LET GO!" There was a rush of wind that made his hair and robes flap wildly. The web reacted like it had been struck. It flailed away, seeking the protection of the main web. Uric frowned at it and turned his wand back on the centre. The rip that Thacher and Miss. Havenward made was gone and the web seemed even thicker than before. This wasn't good. 

Maybe if he made the light brighter? He concentrated. The beam slowly changed colour from a brilliant white to a bright redish-yellow. Uric kept blinking in an attempt to not blind himself. The wailing started again. He tried to hold the colour like that, but he couldn't for long. He was too tired and his magic felt weird. Wobbly. Like something swaying in and out of his reach. 

The beam was wobbling between white and red or at least that's what it looked like to Uric's light-blinded eyes when he heard a shout. It seemed to come from very far away.

"Enough, Uric! You're blinding us!" bellowed his father. Uric had to concentrate to stop the spell and than he stood there blinking at the bright splotches in front of his eyes. His eyes eventually cleared and he saw his father, Thacher and Havenward standing in front of his with Varys over Miss. Havenward's shoulder like a sack. 

"Did you have enough light?" he asked. His father exchanged a look with Professor Thacher. Thacher had a deep gash on his shoulder and his father's robe was torn and covered in spider webs. 

"More than enough. Thank you." His father laid a weary hand on his shoulder. It was covered in blood and black ochre. It swam in and out of focus for Uric. His father's hand guided him over to one wall. "Sit down, Uric." He was pushed down so that his back was against the wall. "Rest until we can get everything taken care of." Uric nodded his head. He closed his eyes and let his head drop to one side. Within seconds, he was asleep.

*****

            "I still don't understand," repeated Mena stubbornly. Louis sighed and started his second attempt at explaining the politics of the wizarding world.

            "Nachleen was the biggest player supporting the abolition of the Council system. The second biggest player was Engholm Siward. Siward stood to gain from the Council abolition, since he had supporters set up to back his bid for Minister once the new ministry system was set up. He has no chance of being Head of the Council since the Council Head, Cian Sage doesn't like him and is currently favouring Beaufolle as his successor."

            "So Uric's father will become Head of the Council?" 

            "Maybe. Cian likes to keep people on their toes. It's one of the reasons he has been Council Head for so long," explained Louis. 

            "But what about Nachleen? Why did he support the Council abolition?" she asked. Louis shrugged.

            "Who knows. Siward could have been bribing him, though it's more likely he did it because he believed he was right," he said. Mena's eyes widened.

            "Louis, do you think they should get rid of the Council?" she asked. Louis glanced over at Uric who was drawing an ever increasing spiral across the front of his Potion's textbook. Uric was pro-Council, and always would be so long as his father was on it. Louis didn't know what side he would be on, but he decided it was better to be honest with Mena now, than deal with her later. Who knew what his family might make him do in the future?

            "I'd get rid of it if I thought it would help me," he admitted in a low voice. Mena glared at him.

            "And how does that make you better than Engholm Siward?" she demanded. Louis held her gaze.

            "It doesn't," he stated flatly. Mena looked very upset.

            "You can't mean that, Louis." He looked away and saw that Uric was watching them curiously.

            "Did you know it's Founder's Day?" Uric asked. "We should have a party." He smiled at them. Louis thought it would be a good idea. It would get their minds off of politics and kidnappings. And reminding Mena it was her birthday soon would be sure to distract her. He smiled at Uric.

            "That sounds like a great idea. Just let me finish explaining to Mena and then we'll start celebrating." Uric nodded and went back to his spiral, drawing strange little drawings of people's heads and random shapes in the space between the lines of the spiral. 

            "So," started Louis again, ignoring Mena's glare. "Siward was loosing support as the battle wore on. He allegedly kidnapped the wife of one of the minor Council member's who was against abolition, forcing him to change sides in exchange for his wife. Since it worked so well, Siward decided to move onto more obvious targets. Unfortunately, Mr. Beaufolle knew about what had happened and put a guard around Uric. This worked until the night Uric was kidnapped. By that point, Mr. Nachleen had begun to waver on his stance, so to be safe, Siward had his men kidnap both Uric and Varys."

            "But how did they get in?" demanded Mena. 

            "I don't know," admitted Louis, than hurried onward in his tale. "Siward hides them in an abandoned labyrinth from the time of the Dark Wars. He fills it with monsters and waits for Beaufolle to either pay the ransom, or to come and try to rescue his son. He underestimates the help that Mr. Beaufolle brought and underestimates Uric himself. Not a good thing in any circumstances." He smiled at her and she reluctantly returned it. "One of his associates is killed in the labyrinth, by chance apparently. Then Uric escapes, and evades them despite the tracking charm they had on him." He stopped there. Uric had already told them the rest. Louis had been amused to hear of Mr. Beaufolle and Thacher goading their old school mate into attacking them. 

            "Siward's now in that new prison, Azkaban, along with Trentin. They'll be there for awhile if the Council has any say in it, and strangely enough, it does," he added, glad that they were all safe now. 

            "But what about the message?" asked Mena. Louis stared at her.

            "What message?"

            "The one under the masks. The ransom message," she said. Louis tried to remember. 

            "Power comes in many guises," said Uric helpfully. Louis had totally forgotten about it. Mena looked triumphant.

            "You forgot about it." She pointed her finger accusingly at him. He hated to admit that she was right. 

            "It's not important anyway," he said. "It was probably just Siward trying to goad Uric's father into doing something." 

            "Father said it was for Nachleen," said Uric his face set in its usual puzzled look. "Though he called him 'that damned Gryffindor' not Mr. Nachleen. I don't think Mum was happy with him about that." Uric had been home for a few days after the kidnapping. The Headmistress hadn't been able to work up the courage to argue for him to stay at Hogwarts. "He said it was Nachleen's favourite saying. Did Varys' father ever come to Hogwarts?"

            "He was here about two days after you were rescued," responded Louis. He had used the invisibility cloak to spy on Varys and his father. Varys had been reprimanded for loosing the invisibility cloak and for not escaping when Uric did. Mr. Nachleen had been extremely upset about owing anything to Uric's father. 

Varys had found the invisibility cloak on his bed a day later and Louis was still cursing himself for being so sentimental. But he could understand the problems of living up to your family's expectations, even if Varys was still a prat. 

            "Ravenclaw is a funny house," said Uric, breaking into Louis' thoughts. 

            "I've always considered them the most normal house," said Louis.

            "I think that's Hufflepuff," said Mena with a bit of pride. Louis gave her a sideways look.

            "Not since Uric got there it isn't. Come on. Let's go celebrate Founder's Day." 

*****

            Uric would always remember that Founder's Day as his favourite. The house elves had given them a basket full of food and sweets and Uric had led his friends through the secret parts of the castle. Through an old study, where you could just make out the faded name of Gryffindor carved into the wood of the desk. To a tiny herb garden where they held a picnic and wondered why the sun was shining despite the storm that was darkening the windows of the rest of the castle. Into a dusty broom cupboard where a small snake was painted that wriggled a little when Uric tickled it. They looked into an iron bound chest holding an even smaller locked chest with the initials R.R. on the lock. 

            Discussion had turned to celebrating Mena's birthday, and Uric's since he had been kidnapped when it happened. Mena insisted that they celebrate Louis' as well once she discovered it had been in November and he had never told them. They had agreed to have a party for the three of them, early on the morning when they were to leave Hogwarts for the summer. That day came much quicker than expected. 

            The cake and presents were over quickly. Mena had given everyone sweets. Louis gave them both books: Mena's was on political theory, while Uric's was a muggle novel, something he was sure Uric had never seen before. Uric's presents were as bizarre as he was. Louis received an invisible quill that wrote in invisible ink on invisible paper. "How useful," muttered Louis. 

Mena got a box full of dirt. "It's special dirt," said Uric, and that was all he would say about the matter. They sat in silence afterwards. Even Uric was melancholy at the thought of leaving Hogwarts. He was afraid the badgers would hide so well that he couldn't find them when he came back. Saying goodbye to Mr. Snuggles yesterday had been sad as well. Finally, Mena broke the silence. 

"I just wish we knew why Varys was sneaking out to the library so much," complained Mena. 

            "Oh, I figured that out," said Louis nonchalantly. Mena gave him the look she usually reserved for when Uric said something incredible. 

            "You did?"

            "Yes," said Louis. He shrugged. "I just looked at the same books he was looking at. Simple really." Mena looked about ready to curse him so he hurried to explain.

            "He was trying to become an animagus. It would have taken him a couple years, but if he had succeeded, he would have been the youngest animagus in history. More honour to Ravenclaw and all that." 

            "So why did you give him back the invisibility cloak then?" she asked puzzled. Louis started. 

            "How do you know I did that?" Mena shrugged.

            "You didn't use it when we pranked Alexis last week. It would have been the perfect time, but you didn't," she pointed out. Louis laughed.

            "I'll make a Slytherin of you yet," he said. She made a face.

            "And why would I ever want to be a lying and devious Slytherin?"

            "Because some day you will discover that hitting people does not solve all your problems," said Louis. She shrugged.

            "It's worked so far," she said. 

            "I want to be an animagus," said Uric.

            "Nice of you to re-enter the conversation, Uric," said Louis genially. Mena giggled at the comment, and the blank look Uric gave them both. She reached out to pet Simon who was asleep on Uric's shoulder. Louis checked the clock on the mantel piece in the room they were borrowing.

            "We should probably head down to the coaches," he said. They packed up everything and headed out the door. 

            "So, what animal would you want to be, Uric?" asked Mena curiously. 

            "A hedgehog. I'd like to be a hedgehog."

            "Uric. You're supposed to want to be a badger. You love badgers," she said. 

            "But I am a badger," protested Uric. 

            "Ah, just who I was looking for!" exclaimed a voice. They turned to see Professor Thacher striding down a corridor towards them. 

            "Hello, Professor Thacher," they chorused, except for Uric who said it several seconds later. He looked them over and winked at Louis. "Give my regards to your father, Uric and remind him that now he owes me twice." Uric blinked.

            "Who's twice?" he asked. 

            "I would give up now, Sir," advised Louis. Thacher nodded.

            "Yes. Perhaps a letter would be easier. Good summer to you all." He walked off, his blue robes trailing behind him. They continued on to the Great Hall, stopping just before they entered. 

            "Do you think we could be seen in public with you next year?" asked Mena. It was hard to tell if she was annoyed or just joking. Louis thought about it for a moment.

            "I'll see what I can do," he promised. "Uric. Try not to blow up your house over the summer." He ducked out the door before they could say any more good byes. 

            Uric and Mena followed soon after, though Mena looked sad. Uric remembered saying goodbye to Mr. Kurze earlier that morning before the party. Mr. Kurze had taken two points off Hufflepuff, for old time's sake. 

            "Do you think the badgers will be here when we come back?" asked Uric as they stood in the queue for the coaches. He absentmindly stroked Simon's feathered head while the bird-lizard nuzzled against his neck. Mena looked up from where she had been staring at the polished marble floor.

            "Of course they will be," she snapped, though she couldn't explain why she was so certain. Uric grinned at her. 

            "Good. Then we have nothing to worry about," he said. Simon chirped his agreement

~Finis~

*****

Contego – L. "Defend/Shield" + nos – "us"

Clamo – L. "Cry (out loud)" + crista –"rooster" Thus ends the Latin lesson for the day. 

A bunyip is an Australian aboriginal monster. 

A/N: Only nine pages over the usual chapter length, and I'm sure no one minded the extra length. All chapters have now been revised. It feels strange to finish since I've been writing this story for over a year now. Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed. Your support, encouragement and advice have worked wonders. 

It's here!: The adventures of Uric aren't over yet! Uric the Oddball and the Great Goblin Uprising – It's Uric "the Oddball" Beaufolle's final year at Hogwarts. Badgers, goblin raids, young love, demon summoning, evil vampires, new classes, and of course, Uric himself. Two chapters already up!

All questions asked in reviews will be answered in chapter 1 of the Goblin Uprising. 

Thanks to my reviewers: Ozma, Tidmag, Mistri, Gred Weasley, Giesbrecht, NM (Narcissa Malfoy), Gemin16, AniMourner, and oO With.

Mistri: Is Uric ever safe is the real question…

NM (Narcissa Malfoy): I am both scared and amused by your sig. Yes, you are absolutely right about absolution being abolition. I was thinking one word and typing the other. I've fixed it now. Thank you for pointing it out:) Hmm, who do you think is sinister? (Not agreeing or denying, just wondering…)

Gemin16: I did have a nice time, so thank you. I'm leaning towards chaser since I don't think she'd have the patience to wait around for the snitch, but I haven't actually thought out that part of the plot yet so who knows what will happen.

oO With: You should read the reviews:) They're just as interesting as the story, or at least I think so. I certainly don't mind long reviews or rambling and I don't think you're stalking me…yet;) The title of chapter nineteen is actually a reference to a short story entitled The Ransom of Richard Redstone (I think, it's been awhile since I read it and the title may be off…certainly don't remember the author) Anyway, the story is about how two men kidnap this little boy for ransom and he drives them so insane, that they end up paying the boy's father to take him back. Uric's kidnapping was loosely inspired by this, though despite driving them insane, the kidnappers never did manage to offer Beaufolle money to take Uric off their hands. If this chapter had been normal length it would have been posted ages ago, but since it ran to 13 pages, I just had to keep writing until the story finished itself. I'm not sure if peanuts had been discovered in the 1680's. Have to check. You've been poking the screen? This explains why I've been giggling so much lately. Damn these symbiotic relationships…

All questions asked in reviews here, will be answered in the latest chapter of Goblin Uprising:)

Well, everyone, how was it? Please review and let me know. Cheers:)


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